Conversation  with  Horatio  Seymour, 

ON  THE 

NATIONAL  DEBT  AND  TAXES. 
SPEECH  OF  HON.  WILLIAM  D.  KELLEY, 

AT   SPRING  GARDEN  HALL, 

SEPTEMBER  8th,  1868. 


Mr.  Kelley,  having  been  greeted  with 
long-continued  cheers,  said : 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Fellow-citizens  : 
I  thank  you  lor  this  cordial  greeting,  and 
congratulate  you  upon  the  happy  auspices 
under  which  the  campaign  has  opened. 
The  victory  is  won  before  the  battle  has 
fairly  commenced.  [Cheers.]  Since  our 
last  Congressional  canvass,  availing  myself 
of  recesses  in  public  duty,  I  have  traversed 
twenty-six  of  Pennsylvania's  sister  States, 
to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  and  in  seventeen 
of  them  have  addressed  my  fellow-citizens 
in  public  assemblies  upon  political  or  eco- 
nomical topics.  I  wanted  to  observe  the 
practical  workings  of  the  reconstruction 
laws  of  Congress,  and,  with  my  own  hand, 
to  feel  the  public  pulse  in  the  different  sec- 
tions of  the  country.  I  have  been  twice 
upon  the  borders  of  the  Lakes,  and  once 
upon  the  shore  and  waters  of  the  Gulf,  and 
having  mingled  with  your  fellow-citizens 
and  mine  on  the  western  banks  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi, am  yet  weary  from  recent  labors 
among  our  countrymen  on  the  east  banks 
of  the  Penobscot.  I  bring  you  good  tid- 
ings from  Maine — from  that  State  that  we 
of  the  old  Democratic  party  used  to  call 
the  star  of  the  East.  Vermont  poured  a 
cold  blast  of  East  wind  on  the  Democracy 
[laughter  ;]  but  when  they  hear  from  Maine 
they  will  experience  the  severest  Northeast 
storm  they  ever  encountered.  [Renewed 
laughter  and  applause.] 

The  Gubernatorial  election  in  Maine  will 
practically  determine  the  Presidential  elec- 
tion. Except  where  there  is  a  hope  of 
carrying  honorable  or  lucrative  local  offices, 
there  will  be  no  vigorous  contest  made  by 
the  Democratic  party  after  Tuesday  next. 

But  I  am  not  to  speak  on  general  issues 
now.  The  campaign  presents  an  unusually 
large  number  of  issues  on  which  any  man 
familiar  with  the  questions  might  delight 
to  talk  with  his  neighbors,  but  having  cho- 
sen for  my  theme  to-night  "  The  Finances 
of  the  Country,"  I  am  compelled  to  con- 
fine my  observations  within  the  prescribed 
limit. 

In  his  remarkable  letter  of  July  24,  to 
the  Hon.  C.  M.  Ingersoll,  Mr.  Seymour  says: 

"I  see  the  Republicans  are  trying  to  dodge 
the  financial  issues  and  to  sink  the  ejection  iuto 
a  mere  personal  contest.  Our  papers  must  not 
allow  this.  They  must  push  the  debt  and  tax- 
ation upon  public  attention." 


This  letter  is  very  characteristic.  Not 
only  does  it  illustrate  your  egotism,  Mr. 
Seymour,  but  impels  one  to  exclaim  with 
Hamlet,  "  There  are  more  things  in  heaven 
and  earth,  Horatio,  than  are  dreamt  of  in 
your  philosophy."  The  American  people 
are  very  thrifty ;  but  they  are  not  devoted 
to  dollars  and  cents,  debits  and  credits. 
There  is  patriotism — love  of  country  ;  phil- 
anthropy— love  of  mankind  ;  religion — a 
reverential  consciousness  of  responsibility 
to  God  !  Animated  by  these  ennobling  sen- 
timents, to  which  your  political  career 
proves  you  to  be  a  stranger,  more  than  a 
million  of  our  countrymen  dared  the  dan- 
gers of  the  battle-field  and  showed  their 
willingness,  if  need  be,  to  die,  that  their 
country  against  whose  life  you  were  con- 
spiring might  live.  [Cheers  and  long-con- 
tinued applause.] 

Unfortunate,  my  friends,  for  his  aspira- 
tions as  is  the  record  of  Mr.  Seymour, 
erratic  as  has  been  the  course  and  revolu- 
tionary as  are  the  utterances  of  Blair,  it 
would  indeed  belittle  the  contest,  were  the 
Republicans  to  rest  their  claims  to  success 
upon  personal  grounds.  In  view  of  the 
characteristics  of  these  gentlemen,  it  might 
be  dona  with  perfect  safety  to  the  issue,  but 
not  with  justice  to  the  people.  For  never 
were  grander  issues  presented  to  the  con-* 
sideration  of  a  people  than  those  to  which 
their  attention  is  now  invited,  and  never 
did  the  argument  all  lie  so  absolutely  with 
one  party  to  the  contest.  No,  Mr.  Sey- 
mour ;  it  is  not  the  Republicans  who  are 
trying  to  dodge  the  financial  issues.  They 
have  no  cause  to  shrink  from  the  discussion 
of  the  debt  and  taxation  ;  they  are  willing, 
and  well  may  they  be,  that  the  public  shall 
understand  these  topics  in  all  their  ampli- 
tude. [Applause.]  And  now,  in  opening 
the  campaign  in  my  own  district,  I  propose 
to  follow  the  course  I  pursued  during  my 
recent  tour  through  Maine,  and  bring  to 
their  calm  consideration,  fully,  freely,  and 
•fairly,  the  financial  questions  of  the  day. 
More  than  this,  I  propose,  Mr.  Seymour, 
to  disclose  to  the  people  in  the  course  of 
the  canvass,  in  some  faint  degree  the  terri- 
ble necessities  of  your  party,  by  exposing 
the  flagrant  falsehoods  required  at  your 
hands  and  at  the  hands  of  your  party  asso- 
ciates, to  invest  these  troublesome  questions 
with  an  aspect  prejudicial  to  the  cause  of 
Republicanism. 


2 


Wlio  are  responsible  for  the  In- 
debtedness of  the  Nation? 

I  propose,  my  fellow-citizens,  as  a  proper 
preliminary  question,  to  ask  first,  who  are 
responsible  for  the  present  embarrassed 
condition  of  the  country  ;  by  whose  agency 
the  nation  has  been  burdened  with  debt 
and  taxes,  of  which  the  Democracy  now 
complain.  You  know,  that  upon  the  Demo- 
cratic party  rests  this  responsibility,  and 
that  Horatio  Seymour  bore  a  conspicuous 
part  in  the  evil-doings  of  the  leaders  of  that 
party.  But  let  not  the  response  to  this 
grave  question  come  from  me  ;  let  history 
answer  it.  And  that  it  may  not  be  suggested 
that  a  snap  judgment  has  been  taken  on  a 
partial  view  of  the  facts,  let  us  give  the 
Democracy  the  benefit  of  the  history  of  the 
thirteen  years  immediately  preceding  the 
inauguration  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  What, 
then,  are  the  facts?  The  Mexican  War 
was  concluded  by  the  treaty  of  Guadaloupe 
Hidalgo,  in  February,  1848.  The  Demo- 
cratic party  than  held  every  branch  of  the. 
Federal  Government  in  supreme  control. 
They  had  the  Executive  Department ;  they 
had  both  branches  of  the  Legislative  Depart- 
ment ;  they  had  the  bench  of  the  Supreme 
Court  by  an  almost  unanimous  voice — in  a 
word,  with  the  exception  of  about  sixteen 
months,  (from  the  4th  of  March,  1849,  to 
the  6th  of  July,  1850,)  during  which  Gen- 
eral Taylor  was  President,  the  co-ordinate 
branches  of  the  Government  were  in  the 
absolute  control  of  the  Democratic  party. 
For  whatever  of  merit  there  was  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  Government,  during 
those  thirteen  years,  the  credit  is  due  to 
that  party  ;  but  if  upon  careful  inquiry  it  be 
found  that  the  administration  of  govern- 
mental affairs  was  productive  of  evil  only, 
we  will  carry  that  fact,  Mr.  Seyrhour,  to 
your  account,  and  that  of  the  party  whose 
candidate  you  are. 

What  was  the  financial  condition  of  the 
country  in  the  month  of  February,  1848  ? 
Before  the  close  of  the  war,  the  Congress 
then  in  session  had  authorized  a  loan  of 
sixteen  millions  of  dollars  for  war  purposes, 
and  it  had  been  taken ;  nay,  more,  it  had 
brought  half  a  million  of  dollars  of  premium  ; 
and  Benton  records  the  fact  that  more  than 
half  the  bidders  for  the  loan  were  much  dis- 
appointed, having  under-estimated  the  credit 
of  the  country,  and  offered  too  low  a  rate 
of  premium.  We  asked  for  sixteen  millions 
at  six  per  cent.,  and  thirty-five  millions  were 
offered,  and  a  premium  coupled  with  the 
tender  of  every  dollar.  Upon  the  sudden 
termination  of  the  war,  through  the  inter- 
vention of  a  private  citizen,  N.  P.  Trist, 
Esq.,  (for  the  politicians  had  not  meant 
that  it  should  terminate  so  Speedily,)  it  was 
found  that  the  loan  had  not  been  required. 
It  was,  however,  applied  to  the  absorption 
of  Treasury  notes,  of  which  considerable 
amounts  had  been  issued.  Let  James  K. 
Polk  and  Senator  Benton,  whose  Demo- 


cracy you,  Mr.  Seymour,  will  not  dispute, 
state  the  financial  condition  of  the  country. 
In  his  last  annual  message,  speaking  of  the 
fiscal  year  in  which  the  war  closed,  Mr. 
Polk  used  this  language  : 

"  The  expenditures  for  the  same  period,  in- 
cluding the  necessary  payment  on  account  of 
the  principal  and  interest  of  the  public  debfc, 
and  the  principal  and  interest  of  the  first  instal- 
ment due  to  Mexico  on  the  30th  of  May  next, 
and  other  expenditures  growing  out  of  the  war, 
to  be  paid  during  the  present  year,  will  amount, 
including  the  reimbursements  of  Treasury 
notes,  to  the  sum  of  854,195,275.00  ;  leaving  an 
estimated  balance  in  the  Treasury,  on  1st  July, 
1849,  of  $2,853,094.84." 

Of  the  next  year,  and  the  last  of  his  ad- 
ministration, he  says  . 

"The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  will  pre- 
sent, as  required  by  law,  the  estimate  of  the 
receipts  and  expenditures  for  the  next  fiscal 
year.  The  expenditures  as  estimated  for  that 
year  are  833,213,152.73;  including  83,799,102.18 
for  the  interest  on  the  public  debt,  and  $3,540,- 

000  for  the  principal  and  interest  due  to  Mexico 
on  the  30th  day  of  May,  1850;  leaving  the  sum 
of  $25,874,050.35,  which,  it  is  believed,  will 
bo  ample  for  the  ordinary  peace  expenditures." 

Mr.  Benton,  in  1856,  commenting  upon 
this  message,  exclaims : 

"About  twenty-five  millions  of  dollars  for  the 
ordinary  expenditures  of  the  Government,  and 
this  the  estimate  and  expenditure  only  seven 
years  ago — now  three  times  that  amount,  and 
increasing  with  frightful  rapidity  !" 

Yes,  Horatio  Seymour,  within  eight  short 
years  of  peace  had  your  party  increased  the 
ordinary  expenses  of  the  Government  three 
hundred  per  cent. — in  that  brief  interval  of 
peace  swollen  them,  to  the  horror  of,  Benton 
and  all  other  patriots,  from  twenty-five 
millions  to  seventy-five  millions  per  annum. 
While  referring  to  Benton,  let  me  repeat  to 
you  what  he  says  in  his  "  Thirty  Years  in 
the  United  States  Senate."  His  language 
is  pertinent  to  our  discussion  of  the  national 
debt  and  taxes.    It  is  as  follows : 

"  At  the  return  of  peace  every  public  security 
was  above  par  ;  the  national  coffers  full  of  gold, 
and  the  Government,  having  money  on  hand 
and  anxious  to  pay  its  Joans  before  they  were 
due,  could  only  obtain  that  privilege  by  paying 
a  premium  upon  it  sometimes  as  high  as  twenty 
per  centum,  thus  actually  giving  one  dollar 
upon  every  five  for  the  five  before  it  was  due." 

Would  time  permit  I  would  gladly  review 
the  general  legislation  of  the  period  of  which 

1  am  speaking,  but  I  cannot  stop  to  consi- 
der even  its  leading  features — not  even  the 
infamies  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  transac- 
tions, nor  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  compro- 
mise, which,  having  been  a  concession  to  the 
South  by  the  North,  had  for  more  than 
thirty  years  preserved  the  peace  of  the 
country,  and  secured  the  cold  but  fertile 
Northwest  to  freedom  and  paid  labor,  while 
giving  to  the  South  the  amplest  room  for 
the  extension  of  its  system  of  unpaid  labor* 


3 


Passing  these  and  other  kindred  topics  I 
hasten  to  those  which  have  a  direct  rela- 
tion to  the  debt  and  taxes  which  you, 
Mr.  Seymour,  would  have  the  Democratic 
papers  press  upon  the  attention  of  the 
country,  and  therefore  pass  at  once  to 
the  17th  of  November,  1860,  on  which 
clay  South  Carolina  adopted  an  ordinance 
of  secession.  Mississippi  adopted  a  like  or- 
dinance on  January  9,  1801  ;  Florida  on 
January  10;  Alabama,  January  11;  Geor- 
gia, January  19  ;  Louisiana,  January  25, 
and  Texas,  by  her  convention,  adopted 
such  an  ordinance  on  the  4th  of  February, 
1861,  and  on  the  23d  of  the  same  month 
endorsed  it  by  an  overwhelming  vote  of 
the  people.  Three  days  after  Texas  had 
thus  ab&olved  the  ties  which  bound  her  as 
a  State  to  the  Union,  three  days  after  the 
last  of  these  seven  States  had  severed,  in 
the  language  of  the  lamented  Lincoln, 
44  their  practical  relations  with  the  Union" — 
three  days  after  the  Democratic  leaders 
of  those  States  had,  to  quote  the  words 
of  Andrew  Johnson,  44  by  the  rebellion 
which  has  been  waged  by  a  portion  of 
the  people  of  the  United  States  against  the 
properly  constituted  authorities  of  the  Go- 
vernment thereof,  in  the  most  violent  and 
revolting  form,"  deprived  the  people,  of 
those  States  "of  all  civil  government," 
representatives  from  each  of  them  assem- 
bled as  a  Southern  Congress  at  Montgo- 
mery, Alabama.  On  the  8th  of  that  month 
they  adopted  the  provisional  constitution  of 
a  Confederacy,  and  elected  Jefferson  Davis 
President,  and  Alexander  H.  Stephens 
Vice  President  thereof.  On  the  eigh- 
teenth of  that  month  Mr.  Davis  was  in- 
augurated, and  on  the  twenty -first,  an- 
nounced his  Cabinet.  Meanwhile  the  re- 
presentatives of  these  and  other  States  had 
withdrawn  from  their  seats  in  the  Senate 
and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  Na- 
tional Congress.  Allow  me,  Mr.  Seymour, 
just  here,  to  put  one  question  :  Pray,  tell 
me,  was  there  a  single  Republican  among 
the  large  number  of  members  thus  retiring 
from  either  House?  Was  there  among 
those  who  represented  those  seven  States 
in  that  Southern  Congress  a  single  Repub- 
lican ?  Were  Mr.  Davis  and  Mr.  Stephens 
Republicans  ?  Or  did  Mr.  Davis  invite  any 
Republican  to  a  seat  in  his  Cabinet?  No, 
sir ;  they  were  Democrats  all ;  and  their 
action  in  thus  dismembering  the  Govern- 
ment was  the  action  of  the  Democratic 
party.  [Great  applause.]  Every  man  to 
whom  I  have  referred,  who  has  survived 
the  shock  of  arms  and  flow  of  time,  is  to- 
day a  Seymour  and  Blair  man,  and  is  as 
devoted  to  your  fortunes,  Mr.  Seymour,  as 
were  the  murderers  of  men,  women,  and 
children,  whom  you  harangued  as  your 
44  friends"  in  the  New  York  Park.  [Ap- 
plause. J  Shake  not  your  gory  locks  at  us, 
Horatio  Seymour ;  thou  canst  not  say  that 
we,  the  Republicans  of  the  country,  did 
this.    But  you  are  a  plausible  and  an  elo- 


quent man,  say  your  friends.  "Would  that 
they  could  add,  a  frank  and  trushfu!  man. 
But  your  last  utterances  upon  the  financial 
questions  of  the  country  preclude  any  man 
from  applying  these  honorable  titles  to  you, 
Horatio  Seymour  !  But,  with  your  usual 
plausible  dexterity,  you  may  suggest  that 
these  were  Southern  men  ;  that  they  viewed 
questions  from  a  peculiar  standpoint ;  that 
they  were  impelled  by  the  influence  of 
habit,  early  education  and  peculiar  position, 
and  that  the  Democratic  party  must  not  be 
held  responsible  for  their  deeds.  If  you 
raise  that  issue,  I  invoke  history  to  settle  it, 
with  the  confident  assurance  that  all  men 
who  listen  to  her  voice  will  say  that  it  was 
the  work  of  the  Democratic  party,  and  that 
you  and  other  leaders  of  the  Northern  De- 
mocracy are  no  less  responsible  for  the 
course  of  events  than  were  Jefferson  Davis 
and  the  men  who  called  him  to  the 
Presidency  of  the  bastard  government 
over  which  he  presided.  [Applause.] 

How  Buchanan's  Adm in ist ration 
Promoted  the  Rebellion. 

The  Thirty-sixth  Congress,  overwhelm- 
ingly Democratic  in  both  branches,  assem- 
bled on  Monday,  the  3d  of  December,  1860  ; 
but  one  State  (South  Carolina)  had  then 
seceded.  Her  ordinance  of  secession  was 
not  the  first  treasonable  ordinance  she  had 
adopted.  In  1832  she  had  adopted  an  or- 
dinance of  nullification,  and  the  President 
of  the  United  States  had  made  known  his 
purpose  of  hanging  her  leaders  as  high  as  Eta- 
man,  and  laying  Charleston,  her  chief  city, 
in  ashes  if  she  attempted  to  enforce  it ;  and,- 
like  a  pouting  child,  she  had  abandoned  her 
unholy  purpose,  but  continued  to  snarl  and 
fret  and  plead  for  sympathy  in  her  evil 
moods.  So  now,  on  the  3d  of  December, 
1860,  had  the  representative  of  the  then 
dominant  party,  in  the  Executive  el  air, 
followed  the  example  of  Andrew  Jackson, 
her  ordinance  of  secession  would  have 
proved  a  mere  brut  em  fulmeii,  as  the  ordi- 
nance of  nullification  had  been. 

Other  States  waited  for  official  assurance 
of  the  proposed  course  of  the  President 
and  the  Democracy  of  the  North.  From 
the  17th  of  November,  when  South  Caro- 
lina acted  upon  the  question,  until  the 
9th  of  January,  when  Mississippi  adopted 
her  secession  ordinance,  was,  in  a  crisis 
like  that,  a  very  long  period.  And  it  is  a 
fact  that  but  for  the  bold  avowal  of  sympa- 
thy with  the  seccders  by  you,  Horatio  Sey- 
mour, and  the  other  leaders  of  the  Democ- 
racy of  the  North  ;  but  for  the  official  as- 
surance given  by  President  Buchanan  that 
he  would  not  exercise  coercion  or  use  any 
other  power  than  moral  suasion  to  save  the 
unity  and  life  of  the  nation,  no  second 
ordinance  of  secession  would  have  been 
adopted ;  and  there  would  have  been  no 
bonds  and  no  debt  for  Horatio  Seymour  and 
the  papers  of  his  party  to  press  upon  the 


CLM' 

4 


attention  of  the  people  of  the  United  States 
for  electioneering  purposes.  [Cheers,  and 
cries  of  "That's  true."] 
.  But  let  history  speak.  Congress  assem- 
bled on  the  3d  of  December,  and  on  the  4th 
Mr.  Buchanan  delivered  his  annual  mes- 
sage, in  the  very  preface  to  which  he  asks 
the  question  : 

"Has  the  Constitution  delegated  to  Congress 
the  power  to  coerce  a  State  into  submission 
which  is  attempting  to  withdraw,  or  has  ac- 
tually withdrawn,  from  the  Confederacy  ?" 

And  what  was  his  answer  to  that  ques- 
tion ?    It  was  in  these  words  : 

"After  much  serious  reflection,  I  have  ar- 
rived at  the  conclusion  that  no  such  power  has 
been  delegated  to  Congress,  nor  to  any  other 
department  of  the  Federal  Government." 

The  body  of  Mr.  Buchanan's  message 
was  little  else  than  an  amplification  of  this 
fatal  answer  to  that  pregnant  question. 
Kay,  more  than  that,  as  if  fearing  that  this 
assurance  of  impunity  to  the  Democratic 
leaders  in  their  war  upon  our  Government 
might  prove  insufficient,  he  appended  to 
his  message  the  elaborate  opinion  of  his 
Attorney  General,  Jeremiah  S.  Black,  of 
Pennsylvania,  enforcing  his  own  views. 
That  opinion  bears  date  November  20, 1860, 
and  had  unquestionably  been  submitted  by 
its  author  and  his  recreant  chief  to  the 
leaders  of  the  incipient  rebellion.  I  need 
not  remind  you,  Mr.  Seymour,  that  Mr. 
Black  leads  your  forces  in  Pennsylvania. 
"  But  that,"  you  answer  with  your  accus- 
tomed plausibility,  "does  not  prove  that 
I  entertain  these  opinions."  Oh,  no,  Mr. 
Seymour  !  And  while  it  is  true  that  "birds 
of  a  feather  flock  together,"  we  will  admit 
that  this  proof  is  not  conclusive,  and  permit 
you  to  speak  for  yourself  on  this  subject. 

Mr.  Seymour  Personally  Respon- 
sible. 

On  the  31st  of  January,  1861,  a  Demo- 
cratic State  Convention  assembled  in  Twed- 
dle  Hall  at  Albany,  to  consider  the  impend- 
ing perils  of  the  Union.  No  man  in  that 
convention  was  more  prominent  than  you, 
Mr.  Seymour ;  no  man  addressed  it  with 
more  potential  voice.  Did  }'0U  demand  the 
maintenance  of  the  Union  at  whatever 
cost,  and  warn  the  rebels  that  they  were 
involving  the  country  in  war  and  thern- 
»  Ives  in  ruin  ?  Did  you  denounce  the  im- 
becility of  Buchanan,  the  treasonable  craft 
of  Black,  the  bloody  recklessness  of  the 
Southern  leaders?  Oh,  no!  your  denun- 
ciations were  not  for  these,  your  political 
friends;  they  were  hurled  at  the  liberty- 
loving  and  la  w-abiding  people  of  the  North. 
You  denounced  the  resistance  of  the  North 
to  ilie  unconstitutional,  unholy,  and  insa- 
tiable demands  of  the  slavery  extensionists 
as  "senseless,  unreasoning  fanaticism ;" 
and  exonerating  the  rebels  from  all  blame, 


you  added  the  assurance  of  your  con- 
viction that  we  could  not  conquer  thexU, 
and  advised  your  friends  that  to  attempt  it 
would  be  as  revolutionary  as  secession  it- 
self.   Your  words  were : 

"It  would  be  an  act  of  folly  and  madness  in 
entering  upon  this  contest  to  underrate  our  op- 
ponents, and  thus  subject  ourselves  to  the  dis- 
grace of  defeat  in  an  inglorious  warfare.  Let 
us  also  see  if  successful  coercion  by  the  North 
is  less  revolutionary  than  successful  secession 
by  the  South." 

Do  not,  my  fellow-citizens,  history  and 
his  own  words  thus  bring  home  to  the 
Democratic  party  as  a  party,  and  to  Mr. 
Seymour  as  one  of  its  leaders,  the  responsi- 
bility not  only  for  the  debt  with  which  we 
are  burdened,  for  the  taxes  so  annoying, 
but  also  for  the  anguish  we  have  endured 
and  for  the  still  fresh  and  green  graves  on 
once  bloody  fields,  covering  the  bones  of 
brave  patriots  in  whose  valor  we  glory 
while  mourning  their  loss?  [Applause.] 


The  Condition  of  tlie  Finances 
tvhen  Mr.  Lincoln  was  Inaugu- 
rated. 

On  the  4th  of  March,  1861,  Abraham 
Lincoln  was  inaugurated,  and  by  the  re- 
tirement of"  Democratic  Senators  and  Repre- 
sentatives the  Republican  party  found  itself 
responsible  for  the  executive  and  legislative 
branches  of  the  Government.  Had  the 
Southern  Democratic  members  not  with- 
drawn, the  Republican  Executive  would 
have  been  powerless,  for  while  they  re- 
mained in  their  seats  the  Democracy  had  a 
clear  working  majority  in  both  houses. 
Nor  could  the  political  complexion  of  the 
Senate  have  been  changed  during  the  four 
years  for  which  Mr.  Lincoln  had  been  elect- 
ed. Had  every  State  election  gone  against 
the  Democracy  during  his  term,  and  every 
Senator  whose  term  had  expired  been  sup- 
planted by  a  Republican,  the  Democrats 
would  still  have  retained  a  large  working 
majority  in  the  Senate ;  so  that  no  law 
could  have  been  passed  without  the  consent 
of  the  Democratic  party,  and  no  official  ap- 
pointment requiring  confirmation  been  made 
that  was  not  acceptable  to  the  Democracy. 
But  having  withdrawn,  and  the  mainte- 
nance of  the  Government  being  in  question, 
the  Republicans  assumed  the  responsibility 
thus  unexpectedly  devolved  upon  them. 
That  Mr.  Lincoln  was  constitutionally 
elected  has  never  been  questioned.  He 
was  inaugurated  on  the  4th  of  March,  very 
nearly  a  full  month  after  the  establishment 
of  the  •Confederate  government,  and  more 
than  a  fortnight  after  the  inauguration  of 
Jeff  Davis  as  its  President. 

Mr.  Seymour,  will  you  have  the  frankness 
to  tell  us  the  financial  condition  of  the 
Government  when  the  Republican  party 
assumed  its  administration  ?  Remember, 
Benton  tells  us  that  the  credit  of  the  Govern- 


5 


ment  had  been  so  good  that,  even  during  a 
foreign  war,  our  loans  had  commanded  a 
premium,  and  that  when  we  had  asked 
for  a  loan,  more  than  two  dollars  had 
been  tendered,  with  a  premium,  for  every 
one  asked.  Remember  that  he  also  tells 
us  that,  in  the  interim,  our  Treasury  had 
so  abounded  that  we  had  gladly  paid 
8 1*20  for  every  hundred  we  owed  for  the 
privilege  of  anticipating  the  maturity  of  the 
debt.  Did  your  party,  Mr.  Seymour,  hand 
over  a  full  treasury  to  Mr.  Lincoln  ?  No, 
sir.  The  4th  of  March,  1861,  the  day  of 
Mr.  Lincoln's  inauguration,  found  the  debt 
of  the  Government  to  be  more  than  $70,- 
000,000 ;  and  during  the  last  month  of  the 
administration  of  the  Treasury  by  that 
earnest  friend  of  yours,  Howell  Cobb,  who 
is  now  stumping  Georgia  with  such  enthu- 
siasm for  your  cause,  attempted,  as  Secre- 
tary of  the  Treasury,  to  borrow  five  mil- 
lions of  dollars.  In  order  to  obtain  this 
small  loan,  or  professedly  for  that  purpose, 
Mr.  Cobb  visited  New  York  and  other 
Eastern  cities.  No  bids  were  made  at  the 
rate  of  six  per  cent.,  and  when  he  offered 
twelve  per  cent,  per  annum  in  gold,  it 
brought  bat  half  the  required  amount,  only 
$2, 1 500,000 ;  the  whole  of  which  sum  was 
necessary  to  pay  the  current  salaries  of  the 
President  and  his  subordinates.  Call  you 
this  good  financiering,  Mr.  Seymour  ?  Can 
you  rind  reasons  in  this  record  which  ought 
to  induce  the  people  of  this  country  to  re- 
entrust  the  administration  of  its  financial 
affairs  to  you,  and  those  who  with  you  thus 
bankrupted  it,  and  deprived  it  of  credit  in 
a  season  of  prosperity  ? 

But,  my  f  llow-eitizens,  a  bankrupt  and 
discredited  Treasury  was  not  the  only  ca- 
lamitous result  of  Democratic  rule.  The 
6eceding  States  had  taken  possession  of 
forts,  arsenals,  mints,  hospitals,  and  every 
form  of  public  property  within  their  limits, 
and  had  handed  them  over  to  the  Confede- 
rate  government.  By  the  consent  of  Mr. 
Buchanan  and  his  Secretary  of  War,  John 
B.  Floyd,  (as  is  proven  by  the  letter-book 
of  General  Twiggs,  now  in  the  possession  of 
his  executor,  Edward  Shippen,  Esq.,  of 
this  city),  our  army,  stationed  by  Floyd  in 
Texas  and  New  Mexico,  had  been  surren- 
dered to  the  forces  of  the  Confederacy  ; 
and  while  the  forts  and  arsenals  of  the  North 
had  been  emptied  and  those  within  the 
Confederate  limits  had  been  gorged  with 
arms  and  munitions  of  war,  our  navy  had 
been  sent  to  the  most  distant  stations  or 
laid  up  in  ordinary  at  Norfolk  and  Pensa- 
cola,  by  the  direction  of  that  now  leading 
light  of  Seymourism  in  New  England, 
Isaac  N.  Toucey,  Democratic  Secretary  of 
the  Navy — so  that  when  the  Democracy  of 
the  South,  under  its  new  government,  fired 
upon  Fort  Sumpter  and  plunged  the  coun- 
try into  war,  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  Repub- 
lican President,  could  command  but  four 
of  the  vessels  of  the  navy,  and  they  among 
the  smallest. 


Thus,  Mr.  Seymour,  having  bankrupted 
the  country,  destroyed  its  credit,  robbed  it 
of  the  means  of  self-defence,  you  and  your 
party  handed  it  over  to  your  Republican 
successors  manacled,  and,  save  in  its  great 
spirit,  which  you  have  never  been  able 
to  comprehend,  impotent  even  for  the  work 
of  self-defence.  [Applause.] 


The  Republican  Party  Assume 
Po  wer. 

The  inaugural  address  of  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  a  plea  for  peace.  His  Cabinet  was 
composed  of  men  of  the  most  moderate 
councils.  He  still  hoped  that  better  con- 
clusions would  prevail  with  the  South,  and 
that  the  Union  might  be  preserved  without 
the  horrors  of  war;  but  on  the  12th  of 
April,  the  first  fort,  Sumpter,  was  fired  on  ; 
and  on  the  loth  of  that  month,  not  as  the 
representative  of  the  Republican  party,  but 
in  his  official  character  as  President  of  the 
United  States,  Abraham  Lincoln  issued  a 
proclamation  calling  forth  the  militia  of  the 
several  States  of  the  Union,  to  the  aggre- 
gate number  of  75,000.  His  language  was 
this  : 

"  I  deem  it  proper  to  say  that  the  first  serviee 
assigned  to  the  forces  hereby  called  forth  will 
probably  be  to  repossess  the  forts,  places,  and 
property  which  have  been  seized  from  the 
Union." 

How  inadequate  for  the  work  were  these 
75,000  men,  we  all  know.  How  the  num- 
ber swelled  to  millions,  and  the  dead  on 
either  side  to  more  than  thrice  75,000,  alas  ! 
we  know  too  well  !  But  the  life  of  the 
country,  its  unity,  and  the  supremacy  of  the 
Constitution  were  worth  these  sacrifices  a 
thousand-fold  over.  The  sorrows  and 
agonies  of  the  war  were  for  a  generation, 
but  our  Uniqn  is  for  all  time,  and  our  ex- 
ample for  all  men  ;  and  when  the  names  of 
all  but  the  most  distinguished  leaders  of  our 
cause  shall  be  forgotten,  generation  after 
generation  will  still  rise  to  call  them  blessed 
who  did  this  great  work.  But  you,  Mr. 
Seymour,  and  your  friends  who  organized 
the  rebellion,  who  encouraged  and  sustained 
it,  are  responsible  not  only  for  every  dollar 
spent  in  the  war,  but  for  every  life  laid 
down  in  the  contest.  [Applause.]  And, 
if  the  debt  and  taxes  be  a  burden,  to 
the  Democratic  party,  as  represented  in 
the  convention  that  nominated  you,  does 
the  responsibility  attach.  [Cries  of  "  That's 
true,"  "  That's  a  fact."] 

What  expenditure  it  required  to  create  a 
navy  ample  enough  to  maintain  our  honor 
on  the  seas  and  to  blockade  our  extended 
coast ;  to  put  into  the  field  millions  of  men, 
arm,  equip,  feed,  and  transport  them  ;  to 
provide  pensions  for  the  wounded  and  crip- 
pled, and  widows  and  orphans,  time  will 
not  permit  me  to  state.  But  let  its  mag- 
nitude be  what  it  may,  I  repeat  the 
assertion  that  it  was  called  for  by  the  tor- 


6 


pitude  of  the  Democratic  party,  which  was 

approved  by  you  in  your  Tweddle  Hall 
speech  and  by  all  your  subsequent  public 
acts  and  utterances. 


What  is  the  Debt? 

Now,  my  fellow-citizens,  what  is  this 
debt  V  It  is  the  unpaid  balance  of  the  cost 
of  maintaining  the  life  and  unity  of  your 
country.  It  is  the  comparatively  small  sum 
remaining  due  of  the  cost  of  preventing 
the  establishment  on  the  American  conti- 
nent of  two  great  military  republics,  each 
of  Avhich  would  have  drafted  the  first-born 
of  every  household  for  its  standing  army 
or  navy.  It  is  the  unpaid  balance  of  the 
cost  of  securing  to  the  American  people 
perpetual  peace  in  lieu  of  what  the  Democ- 
racy proposed — incessant  war  or  armed  neu- 
trality, such  as  the  States  of  Europe  main- 
tain. 

Mr.  Seymour,  you  prove  that  you  little 
know  the  American  people  by  the  expression 
to  Mr.  Ingersoll  of  your  belief  that  while 
remembering  the  great  price  they  have 
already  paid  for  the  execution  of  this  benefi- 
cent work,  they  will  regard  the  debt  and 
taxes  to  which  they  find  themselves  sub- 
jected as  grievances  to  be  deplored.  Ah, 
sir,  yonder  tottering  old  man  walks  in  pov- 
erty and  adversity  because  your  Southern 
rebellion  required  him  to  send  forth  to  die  in 
battle  or  in  pestilential  prisons  of  the  South 
the  stalwart  sons  whose  presence  would 
have  made  the  close  of  his  life  calm  and 
roseate.  And  yonder  pale-faced  woman,  au 
American  mother,  whose  husband  sleeps  in 
an  unrecognized  grave  in  the  far  South,  and 
who,  while  he  lived,  knew  not  toil — her 
struggle  is  now  that  the  children  of  her 
hero  husband  shall  have  the  advantages  of 
our  free  institutions,  and  be  prepared  to  die, 
if  other  Davises  and  Seymours  arise,  as 
their  father  died,  in  defence  of  country, 
Constitution,  and  the  rights  of  man.  These 
myriads  of  men  with  empty  sleeves,  or  who 
lean  on  crutches— think  you  that  they  mur- 
mur at  the  taxes  they  pay?  No!  They 
glory  in  having  performed  their  duty  like 
men,  and  rejoice  that  the  privilege  was 
given  them  of  proving  their  readine&s  to  die 
in  so  sacred  a  cause.  * 

But,  sir,  these  and  such  as  these  can  tell 
you  of  the  real  cost  of  the  war,  and  shame 
even  you,  Mr.  Seymour,  mto  believing  that 
in  comparison  with  what  has  been  gained, 
the  total  of  the  debt  incurred  in  the  sup- 
pression of  your  Democratic  rebellion  is  too 
insignificant  to  influence  the  vote  of  a  single 
American  patriot.  You  desire  to  discuss 
this  little  balance,  Mr.  Seymour;  but  when 
we  point  out  the  real  and  terrible  cost  of  the 
war  and  justly  hold  its  authors  responsible, 
you  write  to  Mr.  Colin  M.  Ingersoll  that  we 
tfare  trying  to  sink  the  election  into  a  mere  i 
personal  contest."  [Cheers  and  applause.  ]  [ 


Relation  of  Debt  and  Tax's  to 
Population, — and  Incidentally  of 
Greenbacks  and  JBonds. 

What,  Mr.  Seymour,  are  the  relations  of 
this  debt  to  the  population  of  the  country, 
to  its  realized  wealth,  and  to  its  future  re- 
sources ?  To  enlighten  us  on  these  ques- 
tions we  must  ascertain  the  amount  of  the 
debt  and  its  character,  and  happily  the 
papers  of  the  day  bring  us  the  last  monthly 
statement  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 
By  reference  to  it  you  will  find  that  the  total 
debt,  less  money  in  the  Treasury,  is  $2,535,- 
014,313.03;  of  this  sum  $425,650,125  <01 
bears  no  interest,  $112,984,911.37  being 
greenbacks,  fractional  currency  or  gold  cer- 
tificates of  deposits,  and  the  balance  ma- 
tured debt  not  presented  for  payment,  and 
much  of  which  never  will  be  presented,  the 
bonds  and  other  obligations  representing  it 
having  been  lost  or  destroyed.  I  also  invite 
your  attention  to  another  item  of  $35,314, 000, 
upon  which  the  Government  is  not  called 
to  pay  interest.  I  allude  to  the  six  per  cent, 
bonds  issued  to  the  Pacific  Railroad  Com- 
pany, the  interest  on  which  is,  and  the 
principal  of  which  will  be  paid  by  the  com- 
pany. Thus  you  will  perceive  that  there 
are  $400,304,125  of  this  amount  upon  which 
the  people  are  not  taxed  for  interest,  and  a 
considerable  percentage  of  which  they  do 
not  really  owe. 

Thus,  it  appears  from  the  last  official 
statement  that  the  total  interest-bearing  debt 
amounts  to  $2,075,250,188.02.  Of  this  sum 
more  than  $(55,000,000  is  at  three  per  cent., 
and  $221,588,480  at  five  per  cent.  So  that 
it  requires  the  collection  of  about  $120,000,- 
000  annually  to  pay  the  interest.  Let  me 
allude  to  the  $400,000,000  of  currency.— 
Whether  that  portion  of  the  debt  be  a  bur- 
den or  a  blessing,  no  man  can  decide,  for 
upon  that  question  the  ablest  and  the  purest 
men  in  the  country  differ.  It  is  in  your 
pocket  and  mine,  and  in  that  of  every  sober 
and  industrious  man  and  woman  in  the 
country,  and  it  will  imperceptibly  disappear 
under  the  operation  of  natural  laws,  when- 
ever the  neglected  branches  of  our  industry 
shall  be  adequately  protected  and  the  bal- 
ance of  trade  be  turned  in  favor  of  this 
country. 

However  opinion  may  divide  on  the 
question,  whether  the  national  currency  is 
now  a  blessing  or  a  burden,  no  man,  who 
believes  that  the  Union  was  worth  preserv- 
ing, will  deny  that  it  was  authorized  in 
compliance  with  an  overwhelming  neces- 
sity. Even  you,  Mr.  Seymour,  dare  not 
and  cannot  dispute  this  proposition.  Your 
friend,  Jefferson  Davis,  had  ordered  the  re- 
duction of  Fort  Sumpter,  and  the  rank  and 
file  of  your  party  had  executed  his  order. 
Your  friends  and  supporters  in  the  conven- 
tion over  which  you  presided,  and  which 
nominated  you  for  the  Presidency,  Wade 
Hampton.,  Forrest,  el  id  om>i<\  were  al- 
ready in  the  field  at  the  head  of  lebel 


7 


armies.  They  must  be  beaten  or  the  Union 
be  lorever  sundered. 

In  response  to  President  Lincoln's  call 
for  75,01)0  troops,  more  than  100,000  had 
offered  and  been  accepted,  and  sent  to  the 
front,  and  the  atmosphere  -was  vocal  with 
the  American  Marseillaise,  "We arc  coming, 
Pal  her  Abraham,  Three  Hunted  Thousand 
more."  To  provide  for  the  demands  upon 
the  treasury,  which  your  party  had  not  only 
bankrupted,  but  burdened  with  a  bonded 
debt  of  $70,000,000,  Congress  was  called 
together  in  extra  session.  You  will  pardon 
me,  Mr.  Seymour,  if  in  response  to  your 
infamous  suggestion  to  Mr.  Ingersoll,  that 
your  papers  44  must  press  the  debt  and  tax- 
ation upon  public  attention,"  I  ask  you 
personally  where  the  money  was  to  come 
from,  with  which  to  pay,  feed,  clothe,  arm, 
and  transport  these  patriot  soldiers ;  to 
estabKsh  hospitals  and  a  medical  corps  to 
care  for  them  when  sick,  or  wounded  by 
your  friends ;  and  to  provide  pensions  for 
the  crippled,  and  the  widows  and  orphans 
of  the  killed? 

It  could  not  be  borrowed  in  gold  from 
foreigners,  because  you  in  your  Tweddle 
Hall  speech,  had,  when  speaking  for  your 
party,  told  them  we  were  "to  subject  our- 
selves to  defeat  in  an  inglorious  warfare," 
and  that  if  you  were  mistaken  in  this,  the 
debt  would  not  be  paid,  as  coercion  by  the 
North  would  be  no  44  less  revolutionary 
than  successful  secession  by  the  South;" 
and  your  friends  Vallandigham,  Voorhees 
and  Pendleton,  the  organs  of  your  party  in 
Congress,  were  not  only  refusing  to  vote  a 
dollar  or  a  man  to  the  army,  but  in  oft-re- 
iterated and  widely-circulated  speeches, 
denouncing  the  war  as  unconstitutional  and 
any  debt  contracted  in  its  support  as  un- 
holy and  void. 

In  view  of  these  facts  I  repeat  the  ques- 
tion, Mr.  Seymour,  what  were  we  to  do  ? 
There  was  but  one  thing  you  left  us  the 
power  to  do,  which  was  to  create  a  National 
currency — make  it  a  legal  tender,  and  thus 
compel  you  and  every  other  ally  of  the  re- 
bellion in  the  North  to  sustain  the  credit  of 
the  government  by  taking  its  notes  in  pay- 
ment of  debts  and  for  goods  sold.  (Immense 
and  continued  cheers.)  But,  Mr.  Seymour, 
you  are  a  plausible  man,  and  I  think  I  hear 
you  say,  44  What  has  this  to  do  with  the 
bonds?  It  was  of  the  bonds  and  the  taxes 
necessary  to  pay  the  interest  that  I  requested 
Mr.  Ingersoll  to  complain."  You  under- 
stand the  question  thoroughly,  but  for  the 
benefit  of  those  who  are  listening  to  us,  let 
me  show  why  the  bonds  were  as  necessary 
as  the  currency. 

You  know  that  the  laws  of  tr?.de  deter- 
mine the  relations  between  the  volume  of 
circulation  required  by  the  business  de- 
mands of  a  country  ;  and  that  the  danger 
of  an  irredeemahle  currency  is  that  the 
volume  may  be  carried  to  such  an  excess  as 
to  impair  its  value  and  unsettle  business. 
This  was  the  case  you  remember  with  the  I 


French  A  ssignats,  of  which  such  an  amount 
were  issued  that  they  ceased  to  be  worth 
one  cent  on  the  dollar.  That  experiment 
ruined  every  business  man  in  France. 
You  know,  too,  Mr.  Seymour,  that  our  Con- 
tinental money,  which  was  irredeemable, 
and  for  the  funding  of  which  no  provision 
was  made,  produced  the  same  disastrous 
consequence?,  and  is  still  unpaid.  I  will  not 
wound  your  sensibilities  by  an  elaborate 
reference  to  the  late  of  the  Confederate 
currency,  but  will  simply  remind  you  that 
when  your  friend  General  Lee  surrendered 
to  Grant,  you  could  buy  $1000  of  Con- 
federate currency  with  a  §1  greenback. 
(Laughter  and  applause.) 

It  was  the  duty  of  a  Congress  charged 
with  the  salvation  of  the  nation  to  avert 
such  fearful  consequences  as  these,  and  in 
spite  of  the  eloquent  resistance  of  your 
friends  Voorhees,  Vallandigham  and  Pen- 
dleton, and  the  fillibustering  efforts  of  their 
followers,  Congress,  having  limited  the 
volume  of  currency  to  an  amount  suffi- 
cient to  quicken  the  industry  of  the  people, 
and  the  development  of  the  resources  of 
the  country,  and  enable  our  own  looms  and 
spindles,  and  forges  and  furnaces  to  supply 
the  wants  of  the  army  and  navy,  provided  lor 
the  issue  of  bonds,  in  which  patriotic  people 
could  invest  their  earnings  and  prevent  the 
undue  expansion  of  irredeemable  currency 
by  lending  the  government  its  own  notes. 
(Applause.)  Of  the  effect  of  this  wise 
legislation  on  our  wealth  anfl  industry  I 
have  not  time  to  speak,  but  my  hearers 
will  remember  how  ^quickly  every  un- 
employed man  was  offered  steady  work, 
and  an  increase  of  wages  beyond  any 
former  rate.  (Cries  of  44  That's  so.")  And, 
Horatio  Seymour,  should  that  hive  of 
presidential  aspirants,  the  judges  of  the 
supreme  court,  ignore  that  cardinal  maxim 
of  puhlic  law  which  recognizes  the  health 
of  the  nation  as  the  supreme  law  of  the 
land,  and  pronounce  the  legal  tender  clause 
unconstitutional,  history  and  the  people 
will  vindicate  the  wisdom  and  patriotism  of 
Congress  in  thus  compelling  such  men  as 
you  to  contribute  to  the  public  credit.  (Pro- 
tracted cheers.) 

But,  fellow  citizens,  to  return  from  this 
digression  ;  as  I  have  said,  the  interest  bear- 
ing debt  is  .$'2,075,000,000,  and  the  annual 
interest  on  it  is  $120,000,000. 

Mr.  Seymour  and  his  satellites  would  per- 
suade you  that  you  are  burdened  and  borne 
to  the  earth  by  this  debt  and  the  taxes  it 
exacts  from  you.  I  apprehend  that  you  are 
like  the  man  who  disturbed  the  court  by 
his  sobs  as  his  case  was  stated  by  counsel. 
His  lamentations  becoming  unbearable,  he 
was  addressed  by  a  tipstaff :  44  Sir,  you 
must  quit  crying  or  leave  the  court."  44  Oh! 
sir,"  said  the  weeping  man,  44 1  can't  re- 
strain myself;  I  knew  I  bad  been  wronged, 
but  I  did  not  know  how  terribly  I  was  hurt 
till  I  heered  Lawyer  Jones  just  tell  my 
story  to  the  jury."  (Laughter.) 


8 


Now,  you  don't  know,  my  fellow-citizens, 
how  you  are  suffering,  how  terribly  this 
debt  is  oppressing  you,  and  these  taxes  are 
depriving  you  of  food  and  raiment.  Why, 
my  dear  sirs,  were  they  assessed  upon  us 
per  capita  ;  did  each  man,  woman  and  child 
in  the  country  have  to  pay  his  or  her  pro- 
portion of  the  interest,  it  would  amount  to 
the  fearful  sum  of  nearly  six  cents  per  week 
upon  each.  Yes,  my  fellow-citizens,  this 
debt  and  taxes,  the  discussion  of  which,  ac- 
cording to  Horatio  Seymour,  the  Republi- 
cans are  so  anxious  to  avoid,  would,  if  it 
were  specifically  assessed  on  each  person, 
amount  to  the  enormous  sum  of  three  dol- 
lars per  year  upon  each  American  citizen. 
(Laughter  and  applause.) 

Why  do  you  not  weep,  men  of  the  Fourth 
Congressional  District  ?  Can  each  of  you 
Stand  so  terrible  an  exaction  ?  But  the 
debt  is  not  imposed  upon  the  people ;  it 
makes  few  if  any  exactions  upon  labor. 
Republican  wisdom  and  patriotism,  ex- 
pressing the  wishes  of  the  people  of  the 
country,  have  relieved  labor  from  most  of 
this  burden,  and  imposed  it  upon  wealth 
and  luxury.  There  are  many  of  our  wor- 
thy people  who  scarcely  pay  a  tax  in  the 
course  of  the  year,  while  the  luxurious  and 
intemperate  feel  the  restraining  burdens  of 
the  Government.  (Cheers.) 

Now,  my  friends,  having  stated  the 
amount  of  the  debt  and  the  exactions  it 
makes,  let  me  ask  you  a  question  :  Is 
there  in  this  large  assemblage  a  man  who, 
if  assured  that  it  would  require  him  to  pay 
six  cents  a  week  for  life  to  preserve  the  cem- 
eteries in  which  our  soldiers  are  buried  and 
the  monuments  erected  to  their  memories, 
would  hesitate  a  moment  before  pledging 
himself  to  pay  it.  (Cries  of  "No,  no; 
not  one,"  and  cheers.) 

Relation  of  the  debt  to  the  capital 
or  realized  wealth  of  the  people — 
Census  statistics. 

The  people  of  this  country  now  number 
40,000,000,  and  you  divide  $2,000,000,000, 
the  sum  of  our  bonded  indebtedness,  by 
40,000,000,  and  you  have  fifty  dollars  as 
each  citizen's  portion  of  the  bonded  debt 
of  the  United  States.  Why,  if  the  people 
of  this  country  who  own  more  than  $1,000 
ea«h,  clear  of  the  world,  were  to  determine 
to  pay  the  debt  before  the  first  of  next  Jan- 
uary, and  each  contribute  his  portion,  no 
man  would  realize  on  that  day  that  he  had 
parted  with  any  of  his  possessions. 

I  h  ave  the  current  labor  of  the  country 
out  of  the  calculation  ;  I  exclude  the  crop 
of  the  year,  whether  it  come  from  the  labor 
of  the  agriculturist,  the  miner  or  the  me- 
dian ic,  the  fisherman  or  the  sailor ;  I  regard 
Bfcerely  the  realized  wealth,  the  taxable  prop- 
erty of  the  country,  that  of  which  the  cen- 
sus properly  takes  account.  W  ere  lens  than 
one  year's  interest  upon  this  contributed, 
not  only  would  the  whole  debt  bo  extin- 


guished, but  there  would  be  a  balance  hi 
the  treasury  so  large  as  to  puzzle  the  people 
and  statesmen  of  the  country  how  to  make 
a  wise  disposition  of  the  surplus  funds  of  the 
Government. 

In  order  to  settle  this  question  we  must 
ascertain  what  the  realized  wealth  of  the 
country  amounts  to,  and  to  do  this  wa 
must  look  fairly  at  facts.  What,  my  fel- 
low-citizens, do  you  believe  to  be  the  ag- 
gregate wealth  of  the  American  people — not 
the  property  of  the  Government,  not  the 
more  than  one  million  and  a  quarter  of 
square  miles  of  territory  upon  which  State 
governments  have  not  yet  been  organized — 
but  the  property  owned  and  held  by  indi- 
vidual citizens  of  the  United  States  ? 

As  the  census  reports  show,  it  was,  in 
1789,  $019,977,247.92  ;  in  18,50  it  had  reached 
$7,135,780,228  ;  and  in  I860,  as  was  shown 
to  the  Superintendent  of  the  Census  by  in- 
dividual returns  of  real  and  personal  estate, 
private  property  had  reached  the  sum  of 
$19,089,156,289— being  an  increase  of  170 
per  cent,  within  ten  years.  Now,  fellow- 
citizens,  the  law  of  the  aggregation  of  pro- 
perty is  that  it  augments  in  a  steadily  in- 
creasing ratio.  The  increase  upon  the 
$7,000,000,000  of  1850  was  not  17  per  cent.; 
in  1851  it  was  at  a  much  smaller  rate,  and 
at  a  greater  rate  in  1859. 

Wealth,  like  the  snow-ball,  accumulates, 
gathers  volume  and  momentum  as  it  rolls 
forward,  and  in  the  last  year  of  that  decade 
the  increase  was  at  a  rate  much  higher  than 
20  per  cent.,  and  at  that  rate  begun  this 
decade,  of  which  eight  years  have  passed. 
No  fair  statistician,  if  governed  exclusively 
by  the  laws  of  statistics,  would  estimate  the 
rate  of  increase  from  1860  to  the  present 
day,  at  less  than  170  per  cent.  And  add  170 
per  cent,  to  the  $19,089,156,289  of  1860  and 
you  have  considerable  over  $51,000,000,000. 

Six  per  cent,  on  this  amount  would  be 
considerably  over  $3,060,000,000,  so  that  if 
those  who  owned  $1,000  clear  of  the  world 
would  give  on  each  such  dear  and  unen> 
barrassed  $1,000  four-tenths  of  one  year's 
income,  at  six  per  cent.,  the  entire  debt 
would  be  paid  off.  Now,  gentlemen,  would 
the  man  who  is  worth  $100,000  be  ruined 
by  foregoing  two-thirds  of  one  year's  inter- 
est? Would  the  man  who  is  worth  $50,000 
be  ruined  by  foregoing  two-thirds  of  one 
year's  interest  ?  Would  the  man  who  owns 
but  a  single  $1,000,  over  and  above  the  re- 
sults of  his  labor  and  his  business,  feel  that 
he  was  ruined  if,  on  the  first  of  next  year,  he 
should  find  that  his  tenant  had  cheated  him 
out  of  $40,  or  that  some  company  in  which 
he  had  invested  his  $1,000  had  from  purely 
temporary  reasons  paid  him  but  $20  instead 
of  $60  dividend.  Yet  this  operation  would, 
as  I  have  said,  extinguish  within  the  year 
1868  the  debt  over  which  the  Democracy 
groan.  That  it  is  a  burden  is  unfortunately 
true.  But,  Mr.  Seymour,  it  is  not  for  yon 
and  your  friends,  its  authors,  to  reproach  the 
Republican  party  with  its  existence. 


9 


WJiat  Railroad  Statistics  Prove. 

"Ah,  but,"  says  Seymour  the  plausible, 
"you  rest  your  calculations  on  the  census 
figure,  and  you  assume  that  the  ratio  of  in- 
crease has  followed  the  general  law  of  de- 
velopment and  statistics.  I  deny  your  prop- 
osition and  dispute  your  conclusion." — 
Well,  then,  Mr.  Seymour,  let  us  confront 
the  general  facts  ;  let  us  look  for  ourselves, 
and  see  whether  the  wealth  of  the  country 
has  not  increased  more  rapidly  since  the  4th 
Of  March,  1861,  when  Abraham  Lincoln 
became  President,  and  the  Republicans  re- 
sponsible for  the  management  of  the  Gov- 
ernment, than  it  had  ever  increased  before, 
or  than  the  wealth  of  any  other  people  had 
ever  increased. 

Let  me  invite  your  attention,  Mr.  Sey- 
mour, to  the  condition  of  the  railroad  sys- 
tem of  the  country.  I  have  here  Poor's 
Manual  of  the  Railroads  of  the  United 
States,  an  authority  in  which  all  railroad 
men  acquiesce.  I  find  by  it.  that  in  1850, 
We  had  9,021  miles  of  railroad  in  operation, 
and  that  in  1867  (seventeen  years  thereaf- 
ter) we  had  in  operation  39,244  miles. 
Here,  sir,  is  an  increase  vastly  beyond  my 
ratio  of  computation,  and  it  grew  thus  in 
spite  of  the  fact  that  your  Democratic  re- 
bellion suspended  the  building  of  railroads 
throughout  the  Southern  States  for  five 
years,  and  reduced  it  for  four  years,  to  wit : 
from  1861  to  1865,  to  about  80  per  cent,  of 
the  average  amount  constructed  per  annum 
before  the  rebellion  in  the  Northern  States. 

But  let  us  not  stop  with  this  ;  let  us  in- 
quire what  were  the  earnings  of  these  roads, 
for  that  tells  the  story  of  the  development 
along  the  lines ;  tells  us  what  fields  have 
been  cleared  and  cultivated,  what  mines 
have  been  opened,  what  forges,  factories 
and  foundries  have  been  built,  and  what 
amount  of  the  results  of  human  industry, 
iu  a  virgin  country,  have  required  transpor- 
tation to  promote  the  wealth  and  comfort 
of  communities. 

Turning  to  another  page  of  Mr.  Poor's 
book,  I  find  that  the  New  York  Central 
road  carried  in  1857,  8:58,791  tons,  and  in 
1867,  1,667,926  tons,  being  an  increase  of 
98.85  per  cent.  That  the  Erie  road  carried 
in  1857,  978,069  tons;  in  1867,  3, 484, 546 tons, 
being  an  increase  of  256.26  percent.  ;  that 
the  Pennsylvania  Central  carried  in  1857, 
530,420  tons,  and  in  1867,  4,000,538  tons, 
an  increase  of  654.24  per  cent.  ;  or,  in 
other  words,  that  the  increase  of  tonnage 
on  t  hese  three  roads  in  ten  years  was  289.98 
per  cent. — within  a  small  fraction  of  300  per 
cent,  increase  in  ten  years. 

And  no  surer  index  can  be  found  of  the 
ratio  of  the  wealth  than  the  statistics  here 
given  ;  for,  as  I  have  said,  they  denote  new 
fields  of  labor  and  the  labor  of  new  men. 
Would  you  get  at  the  law  which  governs 
this  matter  ?  Let  me  give  it  to  you  from 
the  lips  of  one  of  the  ablest  railroad  men  in 
America,  Thomas  A.  Scott,  Esq.,  Vice 
president  of   the  Pennsylvania  Central 


Railroad.  That  gentleman  was  examined 
last  year  before  a  committee  of  the  Senate 
of  Pennsylvania,  who  were  authorized  to 
inquire  into  the  rates  of  local  and  through 
railroad  freight.  Having  explained  why  lo- 
cal freights  are  higher  than  throug  h  freights, 
Mr.  Scott,  a  sworn  witness,  was  asked  : 
"  What  is  the  effect  of  this  system  upon  the 
towns  along  the  road  ?"  He  replied  :  "  I 
can  only  answer  this  question  by  stating  the 
results.  Our  local  business  has  increased 
very  largely  every  year  since  the  opening 
of  the  line.  The  following  table,  showing 
the  actual  increase  of  local  tonnage  moved 
during  the  past  ten  years,  will  perhaps  give 
the  committee  some  of  the  data  they  de- 
sire : 

In  the  year  1857,  the  total  num- 
ber of  tons  local  traffic  moved 
was   901,226 

In  the  year  1861,  the  number  of 
tons  local  traffic  moved  was...  1,412,214 
Showing  that  within  that  period  of  five 

years  the  increase  had  amounted  to  50  per 

cent. 

In  the  year  1866,  the  total  num- 
ber of  tons  local  traffic  moved 
was   2,906,205 

Showing  that  within  the  last  period  of 
five  years  the  increase  was  more  than  100 
per  cent,  in  the  one  year  as  compared  with 
the  other,  and  that  the  local  tonnage  moved 
in  1866  was  over  300  per  cent,  greater  than 
the  movement  in  1857." 

Petroleum,  Coal  and  Iron. 

Let  me,  fellow-citizens,  as  a  matter  of 
just  local  pride,  bring  to  your  attention  the 
fact  that  since  1863  the  northwestern  poF- 
tion  of  our  State,  until  then  known  as  "the 
wild-cat  region,"  the  home  of  lumbermen, 
a  region  in  which  it  was  regarded  as  a 
calamity  to  own  large  tracts  of  land  during 
the  days  that  the  State  taxed  real  estate, 
has  become  one  of  the  wealthiest  and  most 
productive  portions  of  the  country.  Since 
then  that  great  artery,  the  Philadelphia 
and  Erie  Railroad,  has  been  constructed. 

We  find  now  upon  national  maps  the 
names  of  cities  and  towns  where  five  years 
ago  the  winds  howled  through  the  wilder- 
ness ;  all  the  valleys  of  that  mountain  re- 
gion are  penetrated  by  railroads ;  New 
York,  Philadelphia,  and  Baltimore  are 
competing  in  lavish  expenditures  of  capital 
to  connect  themselves  with  its  wealth. 
And  even  old  Mother  England  sent  a  depu- 
tation of  her  enterprising  capitalists  to  see 
how  she  could  bring  herself  into  the  closest 
relations  with  the  wealth  of  the  old  lumber 
regions  of  northwestern  Pennsylvania. 

Mr.  Seymour,  will  you  tell  me  what 
amount  of  petroleum  was  transported  over 
the  New  York  and  Erie  road  prior  to  1860  ? 
You  can  with  your  accustomed  plausibility 
answer  the  question  easily  with  an  eloquent 
sneer.    You  can  say  that  petroleum  was 


10 


then  a  thing  unknown.  But  I  ask,  is  it  un- 
known now?  Sir,  1  am  speaking  of  the 
extraordinary  development  of  the  wealth  of 
the  country,  and  your  answer  clinches  my 
argument. 

Being  a  little  curious  on  this  point,  I 
begged  the  officers  of  the  Pennsylvania  and 
the  Philadelphia  and  Erie  roads  to  give  me  a 
memorandum  of  petroleum  transported  over 
their  roads  from  August  1st,  18(37,  to  Aug- 
ust 1st,  18G8,  to  the  cities  of  Philadelphia 
and  New  York.    I  find  it  was  as  follows : 

To  New  York,  314,829  barrels,  per  Penn- 
sylvania and  Philadelphia  and  Erie  Rail- 
roads ;  to  Philadelphia,  per  same  roads, 
854,259  barrels.  Total,  1,169,088  barrels. 
About  three-fourths  of  this,  say  876,816 
barrels,  was  refined  oil,  worth  to-day,  in 
the  markets  of  Philadelphia  and  New  York, 
$11,416,144. 

The  remaining  fourth  was  crude  oil, 
worth  in  the  same  markets  $2,485,733, 
making  a  total  value  of  $13,901,917.  The 
railroads  transportiug  this  oil  from  Pitts- 
burg and  Correy  received  for  freight  alone 
$1,698,688.  And  the  best  estimate  that  can 
be  obtained  of  the  amount  carried  to  New 
York  by  the  Atlantic  and  Great  Western, 
the  Erie  and  New  York  Central  Railways 
combined,  give  about  the  same  amount, 
showing  a  production  in  the  last  year  of 
about  $28,000,000  worth  of  this  hitherto 
unknown  but  valuable  mineral  product  of 
our  State,  exclusive  of  what  was  sent  West 
and  South. 

Do  you  reply  further,  Mr.  Seymour,  that 
this  is  an  exceptional  instance?  If  so,  I 
reply,  that  it  is,  in  comparison  with  others, 
a  most  insignificant  exception.  Stretching 
under  the  northwestern  part  of  Kentucky, 
southwestern  Indiana,  and  almost  eveiy 
mile  of  Illinois,  Missouri,  Kansas,  and 
Iowa,  lie  nearly  130,000  square  miles  of 
coal  beds,  which  the  pick  of  the  miner  had 
scarcely  penetrated  in  I860,  but  which,  in 
1868,  is  being  utilized  in  every  home  and 
workshop  of  the  west.  The  coal  statistics 
of  this  country  cannot  be  obtained ;  it  is  a 
thing  impossible,  the  quantities,  increase 
from  day  to  day  so  rapidly,  and  the  field  of 
operations  widen  so  rapidly,  that  the  facts 
cannot  be  grouped  and  marshalled. 

In  the  autumn  of  1866, 1  visited  the  beau- 
tiful capital  of  Illinois,  Springfield,  and 
found  its  people  consuming  coal  on  which 
they  had  paid  $2.60  freight  per  ton.  But 
when  I  returned  to  that  city  last  autumn, 
they  were  receiving  their  fuel  from  one 
shaft  within  the  city  limits,  and  from  an- 
other just  beyond  those  limits,  and  there 
was  active  competition  between  the  pro- 
prietors of  the  two  shafts  for  the  supply  of 
the  market.  In  1866,  observing  the  con- 
centration of  railroads  at  Bloomington,  in 
the  same  State,  I  predicted  a  future  of  great 
manufacturing  power  for  that  rising  city, 
but  was  met  with  the  reply  that  there  was 
no  water  power  for  manufacturing. 

One  year  later,  when  there,  I  found  that 


the  enterprising  people  of  that  city  had  also 
penetrated  to  the  coal  bed  underlying  it, 
and  were  exulting  in  the  fact  that  while 
the  men  of  enterprise  in  Philadelphia  had 
been  required  to  expend  $50,000,000  to  con- 
nect their  city  with  the  coal  fields  of  their 
State,  they  drew  the  fuel  from  its  native 
bed  at  the  door  of  the  forge  and  the  fur- 
nance.  In  1866  Indiana  made  no  iron,  and 
the  ores  of  Pilot  Knob  and  Iron  Mountain, 
Missouri,  were,  by  reason  of  the  sulphurous 
character  of  the  Missouri  coal  beds  that 
had  then  been  opened,  regarded  only  as 
a  matter  of  export.  To-day,  under  tlie 
influence  of  the  newly-tested  coal  of  the 
Big  Muddy  and  almost  pure  carbon  of  Clay 
county,  Indiana,  a  great  iron  centre  16 
arising  in  and  around  St.  Louis,  and  one 
that  promises  to  rival  not  only  Pennsyl- 
vania, but  England,  Belgium,  and  Prussia, 
is  growing  with  marvellous  rapidity  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Brazil,  Indiana.  Thus  the 
marvels  of  northwestern  Pennsylvania  are 
fairly  rivalled  by  those  of  southwestern  In- 
diana, Missouri,  and  the  Mississippi  valley 
gen  erally . 

Nor  are  these  without  competitors.  Come 
with  me,  Mr.  Seymour,  to  the  shores  of 
Lake  Erie.  When  abroad  you  doubtless 
traversed  the  Rhine,  and  revelled  in  the 
beauty  of  her  vine-clad  shores,  but  you  saw 
no  vineyards  there  to  vie  in  breadth  or 
luxuriance  with  those  which  crown  the 
islands  and  shores  of  Lake  Erie.  The 
owners  of  these  wide  ranges  of  country — 
broader  than  our  vision  can  embrace — are, 
in  the  language  of  your  party  friends, 
"bloated  bondholders;"  the  success  of 
grape  culture  having  increased  the  value 
of  their  land  from  an  average  of  $10  or  $12 
per  acre,  to  an  average  of  from  $1200  to 
$1500  per  acre  within  a  decade  or  little 
more,  and  the  magnificent  annual  return 
for  their  luscious  crops  has  enabled  them 
to  lend  the  Government  millions  of  green- 
backs. 

Come  with  me  again  to  the  shores  of  Lake 
Michigan  and  Lake  Superior,  and  behold 
those  wondrous  deposits  of  copper.  This 
interest  is  not  prosperous  now.  The  unpaid 
labor  of  the  Peons  of  Chili  has.  under  the 
English  system  of  free  trade,  closed  most  of 
the  copper  mines  of  Cornwall  and  Devon- 
shire, and  is  preventing  these  beds  of  ore, 
from  being  worked.  But,  you  see,  the  copper* 
is  there.  But  look  at  what  will  surprise  you 
even  more — the  concentration  of  popula- 
tion, and  the  increase  of  wealth  in  the  iron 
region  of  Marquette.  In  1857,  a  few  strag- 
glers who  had  gathered  on  the  woody 
shores  of  Lake  Superior,  took  from  the 
earth  26.184  tons  of  iron  ore,  but  in  1861, 
there  were  exported  from  the  port  of  Mar- 
quette, by  these  same  men,  and  those  who 
have  grown  rich  by  coming  to  dwell  among 
and  around  them,  more  than  525,000  tons 
of  that  better  than  Swedish  ore.  Nor,  do 
these  figures  even  faintly  indicate  the  ratio 
in  which  wealth  is  increasing  in  the  dense 


11 


forests  on  the  shores  of  the  upper  lakes. 
The  propeller,  the  wreck  of  which  was 
announced  in  the  papers  of  this  morning, 
was  freighted  with  ten  thousand  bushels  of 
peaches,  from  the  young  orchards  of  this 
prosperous  agricultural  country .  The  young 
vineyards  that  crown  the  cleared  lands, 
are  rivalling  those  of  the  islands  and  shores 
of  Lake  Brie ;  and  the  rapidly  increasing 
number  of  miners,  smelters,  and  other  work- 
ers in  metals,  afford  a  home  market  for  the 
productions  of  the  farm.  Marquette  does 
not  export  all  her  ore ;  for,  Mr.  Seymour, 
she  produced  of  charcoal  iron,  the  most 
vuiu.ible  of  all  irons,  in  1866,  35,44S ;  and  in 
1867,  55,743. 

IIow  significant,  too,  are  these  general 
facts  !  The.  entire  production  of  iron  by 
anthracite  coal,  in  this  country,  under  free 
trade,  Democratic  rule,  in  1858,  was  361 ,830 
tons,  but  in  1867,  under  a  protective  tariff, 
and  with  a  limited  volume  of  greenbacks  as 
currency,  it  was  798,638  tons.  The  entire 
production  of  that  metal  by  raw  bituminous 
coal  and  coke,  in  1858,  was  58,351  tons,  but 
in  1867  it  was  318,647  tons;  and  by  a 
note  received  yesterday  from  Mr.  McAl- 
lister, the  accomplished  Secretary  of  the 
American  Iron  and  Steel  association,  I  am 
informed  that  the  value  of  the  finished  iron 
(the  product  of  our  forges,  foundries,  and 
rolling  mills)  manufactured  in  our  country, 
in  1860,  was  about  $40,000,000,  and  that  in 
1867,  it  was,  as  ascertained  by  reports  to 
the  Association,  $170,492,240.  (Immense 
applause.) 

The  Southern  States—Slave  Prop- 
erty. 

Unable  to  dispute  the  facts  I  have  thus 
brought  to  your  notice,  Mr.  Seymour,  you 
admit  that  there  has  been  a  great  in- 
crease in  the  wealth  and  prosperity  of  the 
people  of  the  North  and  the  Pacific  States  ; 
but  with  your  usual  plausibility,  you  assert 
that  the  South  has  been  impoverished,  and 
that  in  view  of  her  loss  of  property,  we  are 
poorer  than  we  were  in  1861,  when  she 
made  war  upon  us.  .Well,  sir,  I  accept 
the  issue,  and  stand  prepared  to  prove  that 
the  people  of  the  Southern  States — the  old 
slave  States— are  richer  now  than  they  ever 
were.  (Applause**)  What !  you  ask,  will 
you  make  that  assertion,  in  view  of  the  fact 
that  they  lost  nearly,  or  quite  two  thousand 
millions  of  dollars  in  slave  property  alone  ? 
Yes,  sir,  I  do ;  for  I  deny  your  fact.  The 
statement  involves  one  of  your  crafty  plausi- 
bilities. The  slave  property  of  the  South 
was  not  destroyed.  It  is  all  there  now,  and 
in  more  effective  working  condition  than 
ever  before.  (Applause.)  Every  man, 
woman,  and  child  who  would  have  been 
there  had  there  been  no  war,  are  there  now, 
except  those  who,  having  enlisted  in  the 
Union  army,  were  killed  by  the  South- 
ern Democracy — those  whom  your  distin- 
guished friend,  or  General  N.  B.  Forrest, 


whom  you  so  cordially  welcomed  as  a  del- 
egate to  the  convention  over  which  you 
presided,  and  who  voted  for  your  nomina- 
tion, murdered  in  cold  blood  after  their  sur- 
render, at  Fort  Pillow,  or  such  as  your 
other  friends,  of  the  Ku  Klux  Klan,  have 
hung,  shot,  burned,  or  otherwise  murdered. 
Yes,  sir,  with  these  exceptions,  the  former 
slaves  of  the  South  are  all  still  there,  ready 
to  exchange  honest  toil  for  fair  wages, 
(Applause.)  And  we  must,  therefore  strike 
this  item  from  your  debit  to  my  account. 

The  Diversification  of  Southern 
Employment. 

Bear  in  mind,  Mr.  Seymour,  the  fact 
that  it  is  not  the  wealth  that  lies  buried  in 
the  earth  which  gives  to  land  its  market 
value,  or  to  its  owners  income,  but  the  en- 
terprise and  energy  by  which  its  mysterious 
depths  are  penetrated  and  their  rcsourcea 
brought  forth  for  use  ;  the  secret  of  value 
consists  not  in  the  latent  capabilities  of  un- 
cultivated lands,  unwrought  mines,  or  un- 
used machinery,  but  in  the  use  and  annual 
product  of  these.  The  war  added  nothing 
to  the  natural  wealth  of  the  South,  but  ft 
taught  her  people  the  possibilities  of  their 
country  and  their  ability  to  develop  them. 
In  1860,  they  bought  their  food  for  man  and 
beast,  stupidly  clinging  to  the  belief  that 
their  soil  and  climate  would  not  produce 
the  grains  and  cereals  which  are  the  ordi- 
nary elements  for  the  sustenance  of  man 
and  beast,  and  while  thus  purchasing  grain 
and  fodder,  they  kept  no  reproductive  stock ; 
mules  and  oxen  were  their  beasts  of  burden. 
The  system  of  labor  of  the  South  and  its 
theory  of  government  for  the  country,  were 
identical  in  their  tendency.  The  effect  of 
each  was  to  lock  up  in  the  earth  the  rich 
mineral  wealth  of  the  country.  The  South 
aimed  to  produce  great  staples  and  to  trade 
with  foreign  nations.  It  suppressed  the 
small  farm  and  extended  the  large  planta- 
tion. It  ignored  the  mechanic  arts  and 
strove  to  prevent  the  development  of  its  own 
mineral  resources,  by  11  keeping  its  work- 
shops and  shipyards  beyond  the  sea,"  and 
the  result  was,  that  while  a  few  of  its  na- 
bobs rolled  in  wealth,  the  masses  of  its  peo- 
ple endured  a  degrading  poverty  unknown 
not  only  to  the  people  of  the  North,  but  to 
the  peasants  of  Europe.  But  the  exigen- 
cies of  the  war  threw  her  people  on  their 
own  resources,  and  compelled  them  to  rec- 
ognize the  mighty  capabilities  of  the  South  ; 
and  to  raise  their  own  food  and  produce 
their  own  iron,  salt,  and  cloth.  Chattanoo- 
ga, Atlanta  and  Lynchburg  are  iron  centres 
whose  furnaces,  forges  and  rolling  mills  are 
rivalling  those  of  the  most  favored  States 
of  the  Union.  And  tho  Superintendent  of 
Industrial  Resources,  of  Alabama,  after  an- 
nouncing the  extent  and  variety  of  her  tido- 
water,iron  and  coal  fields,  boldly  enters  her 
as  a  competitor  in  the  race  for  supremacy 
among  the  iron-producing  States  of  the 


12 


country.  By  the  way,  Mr.  Seymour,  it  may 
not  be  inappropriate  in  this  connection  to 
remind  you  that  this  office  of  Superintendent 
of  Industrial  Resources  is  not  one  of  the 
old  institutions  of  Alabama.  It  was  created 
by  the  constitutional  convention  that  was 
held  under  the  reconstruction  acts,  and 
which  also  ordained  a  system  of  common 
schools  for  the  State.  Your  friends  call 
it  the  "black  and  tan"  convention,  because 
among  the  "carpet-baggers,"  "scalawags," 
and  "  white  trash  "  who  made  up  the  bulk 
of  its  membership,  were  a  few  patriotic  men 
to  whom  God  had  given  the  dark  complex- 
ion and  "kinky  hair"  of  Joseph  Williams, 
of  Nashville,  Tennessee,  the  only  soldier 
from  the  Union  army  who  represented  a 
southern  constituency  in  the  convention 
over  which  you  presided,  and  which  nomi- 
nated you  for  the  Presidency.  [Laughter 
and  applause.] 

No,  Mr.  Seymour,  the  South  sustained 
no  loss,  except  of  lives,  by  the  war,  which 
has  not  been  more  than  abundantly  compen- 
sated, and  I  beg  you  to  note  my  prediction 
that  notwithstanding  the  devastations  of 
the  war  the  Census  of  1870  will  show  her 
to  be  far  richer  than  she  was  in  1860.  I 
have  indicated  some  of  the  causes  that  will 
promote  the  rapid  augmentation  of  her 
wealth,  but  the  most  important  remains  to 
be  stated.  Her  old  system  denied  alike  to 
the  poor  white  and  the  slave  the  chance 
to  accumulate  capital.  To  the  one  class 
culture  and  self-improvement  were  denied 
by  the  habits  of  society  as  absolutely  as 
they  were  prohibited  to  the  other  by  statute 
law.  The  whole  policy  of  her  governing 
class  was  adverse  to  the  establishment  of 
cities  and  towns ;  they  did  nothing  to  pro- 
mote social  intercourse,  intelligence,  or 
emulation  among  the  laboring  classes  of 
the  people.  In  the  rude  agricultural  pur- 
suits of  the  South,  no  appropriate  or  re- 
munerative employment  was  furnished  to 
youth,  to  womanhood,  or  to  feeble  man- 
hood ;  no  diversity  of  pursuits  invoked  the 
ingenuity  of  the  people,  and,  save  the 
slave  on  the  plantation,  indolence  was  the 
prevailing  characteristic  of  all  the  people. 
During  the  eighty  years  that  the  Demo- 
cracy governed  the  country,  that  beneficent 
institution,  the  Homestead  Law,  was  with- 
held from  the  people  because  it  was  incom- 
patible with  the  large  plantation  and  slave- 
labor  system  ;  but  during  the  eight  years 
of  Republican  government  it  has  been  en- 
acted and  carried  into  effect,  and,  by  ele- 
vating the  freedmen  and  poor  whites  into 
independent  farmers,  is  producing  marvel- 
Ions  results  throughout  the  South.  There 
is  not  a  State  in  the  South  that  is  not  now 
advertising  for  immigrants  and  proclaiming 
to  the  people  of  the  world  its  mineral 
wealth,  its  water  power,  and  its  suscepti- 
bility for  diversified  employments.  Ere 
long,  the  railroads  and  rivers  of  the  South 
will  be,  as  it  were  by  magic,  dotted  with 
villages,  towns  and  cities,  and  its  small 


farms,  blooming  like  gardens,  will  presenta 
strange  contrast  to  its  past  poverty,  igno- 
rance and  squallor.  [Applause.]  The 
crop  of  cotton  for  this  year  will  not  equal 
in  bulk  that  of  1860,  but  it  will  yield  more 
money  at  present  prices  than  did  that  larger 
crop;  and  of  the  proceeds  more  will  remain 
with  the  people  of  the  South  than  ever  be- 
fore remained  from  the  proceeds  of  the  crop 
of  a  single  year.  This  will  be  because  this 
year  the  South  has  raised  not  only  cotton 
but  food  for  man  and  beast — and  not  only 
enough  of  the  latter  to  supply  the  wants  of 
its  own  people,  but  sufficient  to  enable  them 
to  export  with  their  cotton  immense  quanti- 
ties of  corn  and  wheat.  Indeed,  Mr.  Sey- 
mour, the  South  is  richer  than  she  was 
when  she  fired  on  Fort  Sumpter. 


Cotton  and  Woollen  Goods, 

Time  will  not  permit  us,  Mr.  «Seymour, 
to  collate  and  compare  the  statistics  of  the 
production  of  Cotton  and  Woollen  goods. 
I  regret  this  exceedingly,  for  the  compari- 
son in  either  case  would  be  as  striking  and 
as  conclusive  in  support  of  my  estimate  as 
any  of  the  facts  I  have  adduced.  I  will 
only  invite  your  attention  to  the  fact  that 
every  Western  State  is  now  producing 
woollen  cloths,  and  that  we  are  competing 
successfully  with  England  with  our  cotton 
fabrics  in  the  markets  of  China,  Mexico, 
and  South  America. 


The  Pacific  Railroads, 

In  concluding  this  branch  of  our  collo- 
quy, Mr.  Seymour,  let  me  bring  to  your 
notice  the  wealth  created  by  the  construe*- 
tion  of  the  Pacific  Railroads.  They  pene- 
trate, and  are  connecting  with  the  commer- 
cial ports  of  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  oceans 
an  empire  more  than  twice  as  large  as  the 
combined  states,  kingdoms,  and  empires  of 
Western  Europe,  including  the  British 
Islands,  and  far  richer  in  mineral  and  agri- 
cultural resources  than  they.  One  of  them, 
the  Union  Pacific,  will  be  completed  and 
ready  to  carry  through  freight  and  travel 
before  the  close  of  next  year.  It  is  already 
in  use  for  eight  hundred  miles  west  of 
Omaha,  through  what  two  years  ago  was 
"  the  wilderness  ;"  along  its  whole  line  are 
cultivated  farms,  for  much  of  the  land  is 
prairie,  thriving  villages  and  populous 
cities ;  in  the  cities  of  Omaha  and  Cheyenne 
town  lots  and  stores  command  almost _  as 
high  a  price  as  they  do  in  the  city  of  Phila- 
delphia ;  and  all  this  wealth  is  but  the  ag- 
gregation of  two  years  of  human  industry 
upon  territory  which  had  previously  been 
unproductive  and  had  never  felt  the  tread' 
of  the  tax-gatherer's  foot.  [Applause.] 

How  substantial  these  new  riches  are, 
and  how  they  are  made  to  reproduce  their 
own  kind  is  well  shown  by  the  following 
description  of  the  companies1  shops  at 


13 


Omaha;  duplicates  of  which  are  now  in 
process  of  construction  500  miles  west  of 
that  city  at  Cheyenne. 

41  The  buildings  are  of  brick,  200  feet  by 
80,  with  wing  80  feet  by  40.  Paint  shops 
160  ft.  by  35,  with  wing  40  ft.  by  16.  As 
we  entered  the  buildings  the  noise  of  t  wenty 
or  thirty  different  machines  all  in  motion— 
the  brawny  workmen  wielding  ponderous 
sledge  hammers— the  endless  whirr  of 
swift-rolling  wheels— the  glowing  metal,  as 
it  was  taken  at  a  white  heat  from  the  fur- 
naces, scattering  its  bright  sparks  on  every 
side— all  spoke  of  a  busy,  active  life  spring- 
ing up  here  on  these  Western  plains,  where, 
m  our  imagination,  we  fancied  we  should 
see  nothing  but  herds  of  cattle  and  Indian 
encampments.  In  the  buildings  above  enu- 
merated I  noticed  several  circular  saws, 
planers,  three  boring  machines,  two  mor- 
tice machines,  one  turning  lathe,  one  bolt 
cutter,  one  drill-press,  one  jig-saw,  one 
shaping-machine,  two  tennouters,  and  two 
tennon-niachines,  and  these  all  driven  by  a 
single  stationary  engine  of  the  very  finest 
workmanship.  In  the  main  building  were 
several  locomotives  of  immense  power  and 
fine  finish,  most  of  them  having  been  manu- 
factured at  the  East,  but  put  together  here 
in  the  shops  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railway, 
where  all  repairs  are  done  also. 

u  Thecompany  manufacture  most  of  their 
own  cars,  both  freight  and  passenger  cars, 
twenty-four  flat  cars  are  being  turned  out 
each  week,  besides  one  first-class  and  one 
second-class  coach,  and  one  or  two  bag- 
gage cars  and  cabooses  each  month.  The 
first-class  cars  manufactured  here  are  equal 
to  any  cars  to  be  found  on  any  of  the  East- 
ern railways,  and  indeed  the  whole  rolling 
stock  of  the  company  will  compare  with 
that  of  any  other  road  in  the  country.  The 
lumber  used  is  of  three  kinds,  oak,  ash,  and 
pine,  and  cut  into  proper  lengths  and  thick- 
ness for  the  object  designed.  The  car  fin- 
ished is  transferred  to  the  painting  depart- 
ment, receives  its  different  coats  and  stripes, 
and  is  then  run  back  to  the  drying-room. 
In  this  department  there  are  three  hundred 
and  fifty  men  employed,  which,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  cars  manufactured,  turns  out  a 
large  amount  of  furniture  and  cabinet 
work  for  the  use  of  the  railway  offices  and 
buildings  along  the  track.  In  the  forging 
and  casting  departments  there  are  about 
the  same  number  of  workmen  employed." 

The  other  road,  known  as  the  Eastern 
Division,  is  now  completed  to  a  point  700 
miles  west  of  St.  Louis.  From  Fort  Wal- 
lace, on  Smoky  Hill,  its  course  is  nearly 
south  to  the  35th  parallel  at  Albuquerque, 
and  it  will  run  on  that  line  nearly  due  west 
to  the  Coast  Range  of  mountains.  It  will 
thus  not  only  connect  us  with  San  Fran- 
cisco, but  with  San  Diego  and  the  railroads 
of  Mexico.  The  earnings  of  this  road  are 
already  immense,  and  those  of  the  Union 
Pacific  were  last  year  over  four  millions  of 
dollarsingold.  (Long-continued  applause.) 


Now,  Mr.  Seymour,  you  are  familiar  with 
all  these  facts,  and  I  submit  to  you  wiiether 
it  is  honest,  truthful  or  patriotic,  to  charge 
as  you  habitually  do  the  advance  of  the 
government  credit  to  these  beneficent  enter- 
prises which  has  not  and  cannot  cost  the 
country  one  cent,  as  a  corrupt  expenditure 
by  a  Republican  Congress  of  nearly  $40,- 
000,000  of  the  people's  money.  (Ap- 
plause. ) 

Sow  the  debt  will  be  paid — A  glance 
at  the  future. 

Though  my  remarks  have  been  discurs- 
ive, have  they  not,  my  friends,  served  to 
convince  you  that  my  estimate  of  the  wealth 
of  the  American  people  is  moderate  ?  Do 
you  not  believe  that  it  amounts  to  more 
Ihan  $50,000,000,000?    (Cries  of  "Yes," 

We  do,"  and  "  That's  so. ")  Then  four  per 
cent,  on  eight  months  interest  at  the  rate 
of  six  per  cent,  per  annum  would  pay  the 
whole  bonded  debt,  and  settle  the  claims 
of  the  "bloated  bondholders"  upon  the 
government.  (Laughter  and  applause.) 
My  over-burdened  people,  how  can  you 
exhibit  such  levity  ?  Why  do  you  "not 
weep  with  Mr.  Seymour,  who  feels  that 
you  cannot  pay  this  enormous  sum  even 
as  the  price  of  the  salvation  of  your  coun- 
try ?  But  let  us  look  at  the  future,  and  see 
if  we  cannot  discover  something  cheering 
to  soothe  our  agitated  nerves. 

The  census  reports  from  1790  prove  that 
our  population  doubles  every  20  years.  It 
is  increasing  more  rapidly  than  ever  be- 
fore. Hitherto  immigrants  came  only  from 
Europe.  But  now  they  are  pouring  into 
the  Pacific  States  from  China,  whose  people 
number  500,000,000,  or  double  the  popula- 
tion of  Western  Europe.  10,000  Chinese 
are  employed  in  building  the  Pacific  end  of 
the  Union  railroad  of  which  I  have  spoken, 
and  every  steamer  that  arrives  brings  from 
800  to  1,000  of  these  industrious  people. 
But  to  return:  our  population  doubles  in  20 
years,  and  if  not  another  dollar  of  our  debt 
be  paid  till  then,  the  share  of  each  American 
citizen  in  1888  will  be  $25,  and  his  share  of 
the  interest  involve  a  tax  of  a  dollar  and  a 
half  per  year,  or  less  than  three  cents  a  week. 
But  what  will  the  wealth  of  the  country 
then  be  ?  If  we  may  judge  from  its  pro- 
gress since  1850,  it  will  have  attained  the 
almost  inconceivable  sum  of  $800,000,- 
000,000.  It  would  therefore  be  unwise  to 
tax  the  present  generation  to  extinguish 
the  debt.  The  Democrats  have  clamored 
for  the  payment  of  the  debt  by  the  gen- 
eration that  contracted  it.  Such  was 
the  theory  of  Andrew  Johnson  and  Sec- 
retary McCulloch.  But  the  Republican  party 
in  Congress,  beholding  our  marvellous 
progress  in  population  and  the  rapidly 
increasing  wealth  of  the  country,  felt 
that  the  generation  that  had  been  har- 
assed by  the  war,  should  not  be  op- 
pressed by  the  burden  of  extinguishing  a 


14 


debt  incurred  in  its  successful  prosecution  as 
it  had  been  waged  for  posterity.  They  there- 
fore sought,  to  so  apportion  the  taxes  as  to 
merely  provide  each  year  for  the  current 
expenses  and  the  payment  of  the  interest. 
But  they  have  been  unable  to  reduce  them 
safely  with  sufficient  rapidity  to  accomplish 
this,  and  the  debt  has  gone  on  paying  itself. 
Our  experience  in  this  behalf  reminds  me 
of  the  story  of  the  school-boy  who  uncon- 
sciously emitted  a  whistle  while  working 
out  a  difficult  sum.  Upon  being  reproached 
by  the  teacher,  he  denied  the  fact.  1 '  John, ' ' 
said  the  teacher,  "don't  add  the  crime  of 
falsehood  to  your  misdemeanor  in  violating 
a  rule  of  the  school."  "Master,"  was  the 
reply,  "  I  didn't  whistle  ;  it  whistled  itself ; 
I  was  at  work  at  my  sum."  [Laughter  and 
applause.  ]  And  while  our  policy  has  been 
to  relieve  industry  and  capital  of  all  unneces^ 
sary  burdens  until  the  country  should  be 
restored  to  its  normal  condition,  and  the 
Southern  States  be  in  the  full  enjoyment  of 
their  productive  power,  we  have  paid  more 
than  $250,000,000  of  the  principal  of  the 
public  debt,  and  have  paid  in  back  pay,  and 
bounties  and  pensions  to  our  soldiers,  and 
their  widows  and  orphans,  nearly  $700,- 
000,000  more.  During  the  height  of  the 
war  every  thing  was  taxed ;  during  the 
three  years  since  the  war,  taxes  have  been 
removed  from  more  than  ten  thousand  dis- 
tinct articles.  On  no  one  of  the  questions 
now  at  issue  may  the  policies  of  the  two 
parties  be  contrasted  with  greater  advantage 
to  the  Republican  party  than  upon  this 
question  of  taxation.  But  I  am  detaining 
you  too  long.  [Cries  of  "  No,  you  are  not," 
"Go  on."] 

No,  my  friends,  I  will  devote  no  more 
time  to  this  point  to-night.  Other  opportu- 
nities for  discussing  it  will  occur  during  the 
campaign.  But  there  are  two  other  points 
to  which  I  will  hastily  allude. 

A  Plank  in  the  Democratic  Plat- 
form, 

The  fourth  section  of  the  Democratic 
platform  reads  as  follows  : 

"  Equal  taxation  of  every  species  of  property 
according  to  its  real  value,  including  Govern- 
ment bonds  and  other  public  securities." 

Mr.  Seymour,  you  were  a  member  of  the 
Convention.  You  assisted  in  framing  the 
platform,  and  endorse.d  it  in  your  accept- 
ance of  the  nomination ;  and  the  toiling 
men  who  constitute  nine-tenths  of  my  con- 
stituents, will  hold  you  responsible  for  this 
proposition  to  impose  the  burden  of  the 
taxes  of  which  you  complain  upon  labor 
and  the  necessaries  of  life.  [Applause.] 

My  fellow-citizens,  let  us  examine  this 
proposition.  It  proposes  to  tax  at  their 
real  value  the  farmer's  farm  and  stock,  the 
mechanic's  shop  and  tools,  the  laborer's 
home,  and  the  manufacturer's  machinery 
and  the  power  that  moves  it.    This  is  bad 


enough.  But  this  modern  Democratic  doc- 
trine goes  much  farther.  It  proposes  to  tax 
the  furniture  in  every  working  man's  homo, 
the  hat  on  hi3  head,  the  shoes  on  his  feet, 
and  the  food  he  and  his  family  eat.  Against 
this  blow  at  the  laborers  of  the  country,  the 
Republican  party  interposes  its  power.  It 
resists  with  all  its  force  this  aristocratic  sug- 
gestion. It  says  "the  barrel  of  flour  is  a 
necessity  for  every  man,  woman  and  child, 
and  therefore  it  will  not  tax  it ;  but  the 
barrel  of  beer  is  a  luxury  and  it  will  tax  it ; 
the  clothes  you  wear  are  necessary,  there- 
fore it  relieves  them  from  taxation ;  the 
whiskey  you  drink  is  a  luxury,  therefore  it 
taxes  it  even  more  heavily  than  it  does 
beer ;  the  tobacco  you  chew,  the  segar  you 
smoke,  and  the  snuff  you  take  are  luxuries, 
aud  it  taxes  them  ;  but  food  for  man  and 
fodder  for  cattle  are  prime  necessaries  of 
life,  and  must  not  be  taxed  at  their  real  or 
any  other  value."  Thus,  the  Republican 
party  has  relieved  from  taxation  the  ele- 
ments of  life.  But  it  has  done  more.  To 
the  laboring  man  it  says,  "you  may  own 
and  use  forty  ounces  of  silver  in  your  fam- 
ily and  the  Government  takes  no  heed  oi  it ;" 
but  to  the  man  of  wealth  whose  tea  and 
dinner  sets  are  of  silver,  it  says,  "  for  every 
ounce  over  forty  we  require  you  to  pay  a 
tax  to  the  Government."  It  make.-;  a  dis- 
tinction between  the  dining  table  and  the 
billiard  table.  It  has  no  tax  for  the  for- 
mer, but  as  the  latter  is  a  luxury  it  imposes 
a  tax  upon  it.  It  imposes  no  tax  upon  the 
farmer's  or  laborer's  cart  or  wagon,  hut 
upon  the  pleasure  carriage  worth  more  than 
$300,  it  does  put  a  tax.  It  makes  no  draft 
in  the  way  of  income  tax  upon  the  results  of 
the  laboring  man's  toil,  or  on  the  trader  or 
shopkeeper  who  has  not  $1000  clear  annual 
income,  above  house  rent,  repairs,  clerk 
hire,  and  such  expenses.  And  surely  the 
man  who  has  more  than  a  thousand  dollars 
clear  annual  income,  cannot  call  the  Govern- 
ment oppressive  because  it  calls  upon  him 
for  a  slight  contribution  for  protecting  him 
in  his  rights  and  property.  [Applause.] 

It  is  natural,  Mr.  Seymour,  that  your 
party, .  controlled  as  it  is  by  the  old  slave- 
holding  oligarchy,  with  their  contempt  for 
labor  and  the  "mudsills  of  society,"  should 
now,  that  the  slave  is  a  freeman  and  demand- 
ing wages  for  his  work,  wish  to  tax  him  and 
all  who  labor.  During  the  war,  -w^en  your 
southern  friends  were  making  the  army  and 
navy  cost  hundreds  of  millions  annually, 
every  species  of  property  was  taxed.  But 
thanks  to  the  rapid  increase  of  our  wealth, 
and  the  vigorous  system  of  retrenchment 
instituted  by  Congress,  this  is  no  longer 
necessary,  and  more  than  10,000  distinct 
species  of  property  involving  the  labor  of 
American  mechanics  have  been  relieved  of 
taxation.  Yes,  sir,  a  reduced  scale  of  taxa- 
tion on  capital  and  articles  of  luxury  is 
now  furnishing  funds  ample  to  pay  interest, 
current  expenses,  and  an  instalment  of  the 
principal  of  the  debt  each  year.    And  it  ia 


15 


the  purpose  of  the  Republican  party  to 
further  reduce  those  taxes  at  each  suc- 
ceeding session.  [Cheers  and  cries  of 
"Good."] 


Taxing  the  Bonds, 

Mr.  Seymour,  practical  men  regard  com- 
mercial honor,  unbroken  faith,  and  un- 
doubted credit  as  among  the  richest  posses- 
sions of  men  or  nations.  Having  these,  a 
poor  man  or  embarrassed  country  can  bor- 
row capital  on  easy  terms,  but  when  the 
want  of  these  elements  of  character  is 
known,  extortionate  rates  of  interest  must 
cofcipensal  e  the  greater  risk  of  the  lender. 
You  understand  this,  Horatio  Seymour, 
not  perhaps  instinctively,  but  Blackstone 
and  others  have  impressed  it  on  your  mind, 
and  I  charge  that  your  appeal  to  Mr.  In- 
gersoll  to  induce  your  party  press  "to  push 
the  debt  and  taxation  upon  public  atten- 
tion," was  a  deliberate  effort  on  your 
part  to  tarnish  the  honor  and  impair  the 
credit  of  the  country,  and  to  maintain  the 
high  rate  of  interest  at  which  you  and  your 
friends  compelled  us  to  contract  the  war 
debt,  by  depreciating  the  price  of  our 
bonds.  (Immense  cheering.)  Yes,  sir,  the 
assaults  of  the  Democracy  upon  the  credit 
of  the  country  have  had  the  effect  of  com- 
pelling us  to  pay  the  high  rate  of  interest 
which  we  are  paying,  just  as  their  s}rm- 
pathy  during  the  war  strengthened  the 
rebels  when,  but  for  the  hopes  it  inspired, 
the  war  would  have  ended.  (Cries  of 
"That's  so.") 

You  know  that  Congress  cannot  authorize 
State  or  municipal  authorities  to  tax  the 
bonds  or  other  securities  of  the  National 
Government  I  You  know,  Horatio  Sey- 
mour, that  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  so  long  ago  as  the  days  of  Washing- 
ton and  Marshall,  decided  that  sucli  an  act 
would  be  unconstitutional.  When  those 
who  had  sympathized  with  Benedict  Ar- 
nold attempted  to  destroy  the  credit  of  the 
Government  by  taxing  the  first  bonds  the 
Government  was  compelled  to  issue,  that 
court  interposed  the  aegis  of  the  Constitu- 
tion; and  now,  when  you,  Mr.  Seymour, 
amd  Forrest,  and  Pendleton,  and  Wade 
Hampton,  are  conspiring  to  ruin  our  credit 
by  the  same  inglorious  trick,  Congress 
calmly  says  to  the  public  creditor,  "Have 
faith  !  you  shall  be  paid  every  dollar  you 
lent  our  country.  We  saved  the  Union,  and 
we  will  maintain  the  Constitution."  (Ap- 
plause.) 

Congress  may  tax  such  of  the  bonds  as 
are  held  by  American  citizens  ;  and  it  exer- 
cises the  power.  Income  derived  from 
bonds  pays  precisely  the  same  rate  of 
taxes  as  income  derived  from  any  other 
species  of  property.  Thus  far  Congress 
dare  go,  and  thus  far  it  has  gone.  (Ap- 
plause.) J 


Democra tic  Hypocrisy—  The 
Funding  Hill, 

During  the  last  session  of  Congress  we 
passed  a  funding  bill,  by  which  we  offered 
four  and  four  and  a-half  per  cent,  for  long 
loans,  the  interest  payable  in  gold  semi- 
annually, and  the  principal  in  gold  at  the 
maturity  of  the  bond.  Against  that  bill 
the  Democrats  in  both  Houses  spoke,  fili- 
bustered and  voted,  but  we  finally  passed 
it.  It  may  be  that  it  was  not  the  wisest 
bill  that  could  have  been  framed,  but  its 
adoption  would  have  given  us  the  advan- 
tage of  some  experience  upon  an  untried 
question.  It  was  an  experiment,  and  if 
but  a  few  millions  of  our  six  per  cent,  loan 
had  been  taken  at  four  or  four  and  a-half, 
the  taxes  could  agaiu  have  been  reduced  as 
the  interest  of  the  debt  was  thus  diminished. 
But,  rallying  around  our  recreant  President, 
your  friends,  Mr.  Seymour,  in  both  Houses 
and  throughout  the  country  induced  him 
to  withhold  his  signature  from  the  bill 
and  prevent  it  from  beeoming  a  law.  Are 
you  honest  in  your  outcry  against  the  debt 
and  taxation  ?  If  so,  why  not  permit  tile 
experiment  of  offering  to  those  who,  in 
spite  of  Pendleton's  ingenious  plan  of  repu- 
diation, are  eagerly  buying  our  six  per 
cent,  bonds,  an  assured  gold  bond  at  four 
or  four  and  a-half  per  cent.  In  the  light  of 
these  facts,  Mr.  Seymour — the  resistance  of 
your  friends  to  every  honorable  effort  for 
the  reduction  of  these  burdens — how  impu- 
dently hypocritical  are  your  expressions  of 
sympathy  with  the  debt  and  tax-burdened 
people  !  (Applause,  and  cries  of  M  Hit  him 
again.") 


The  Democracy  want  to  Pay  tlie 
Confederate  JJebt,  or  Jiepudiate 
Ours, 

In  conclusion,  I  will  consider  one  other 
point.  The  history  of  that  article  of  the 
Constitution  known  as  the  14th  Amend- 
ment is  most  significant.  Their  course  on 
this  question  alone  should  doom  to  per- 
petual infamy  the  Northern  leaders  of  the 
Democratic  party.  The  4th  section  of  that 
amendment  reads  as  follows: 

"The  validity  of  the  public  debt  of  the 
United  States,  authorized  by  law,  including 
debts  incurred  for  payment  of  pensions  and 
bounties  for  services  in  suppressing  insur- 
rection or  rebellion,  shall  not  be  questioned. 
But  neither  the  United  States  nor  any  State 
shall  assume  or  pay  any  debt  or  obligation 
incurred  in  aid  of  insurrection  or  rebellion 
against  the  United  States,  or  any  claim  for 
the  loss  or  emancipation  of  any  slave ;  but 
all  such  debts,  obligations,  and  claims  shall 
be  held  illegal  and  void." 

This  provision,  you  perceive,  gives  ex- 
press constitutional  sanction  to  the  public 
debt  and  the  soldiers'  pensions,  and  pre- 


16 


eludes  the  possibility4  of  the  Government  or 

any  State  ever  assuming  any  debt  con- 
tracted in  aid  of  insurrection,  or  rebellion, 
or  for  the  loss,  or  emancipation  of  any  slave. 
The  Confederate  debt  amounted  to  $1,700,- 
000,000  of  dollars.  The  estimated  value  of 
the  slaves  of  the  South  ranged  from  $1,- 
200,000,000  to  $2,000,000,000;  the  two 
combined  thus  make  a  debt  larger  than 
the  national  debt,  amounting  to  at  least 
$3,000,000,000.  The  credit  of  our  country 
was  damaged  by  the  suggestion  that  these 
debts  would  one  day  be  assumed,  and 
consequently  the  adoption  of  some  such 
amendment  was  imperatively  demanded. 
Now,  what  has  been  the  attitude  of  Mr. 
Sejunour  and  the  Democracy  of  the  country, 
with  reference  to  this  amendment  ?  They 
resisted  it  in  Congress ;  they  resisted  it  in 
each  State  Legislature.  And  when,  in  ac- 
cordance with  His  inscrutable  providence, 
the  Almighty  permitted  -them  to  obtain 
temporary  possession  of  New  Jersey  and 
Ohio,  they  made  eager  and  unseemly 
haste  to  withdraw  the  consent  of  those 
States  which  had  previously  been  given 
by  Republican  Legislatures.  Why  is  this, 
my  friends  ?  If  they  wish  to  relieve  the 
people  of  their  burdens,  if  they  wish  to 
diminish  the  rate  of  interest  and  reduce  the 
debt,  why  is  this  ?  Is  it  that  they  object 
to  the  payment  of  bounties  and  pensions  to 
•the  soldiers  and  their  suffering  widows  and 
orphans  ?  or  is  it  that,  regarding  the  debt 
as  unconstitutional,  as  having  been  con- 
tracted in  what  they  still  regard  as  an 
unholy  war,  they  desire  to  so  swell  it  as 
to  necessarily  involve  its  repudiation  ?  Mr. 
Pendleton's  theory  of  greenbacks  is  repudia- 
tion scarcely  qualified.  Issue  two  thousand 
millions  of  greenbacks,  with  which  to  ex- 
tinguish the  bonded  debt,  and  would  you 
have  paid  the  debt  by  that  operation?  Who 
would  pay  the  greenbacks  ?  Would  not  each 
one  of  them  be  an  obligation  for  a 
dollar  payable  by  the  country  ?  Look  at 
it,  my  friends.  You  owe  the  man  who 
loaned  you  the  money  to  build  your  house 
a  mortgage,  and  you  propose  to  pay  him  in 
your  promissory  note.  Would  you  not 
still,  if  he  were  fool  enough  to  accept  it, 
owe  him  the  same  amount  on  your  promis- 
sory note,  and  would  not  the  law  attach 
legal  interest  thereto  ?  Mr.  Pendleton  and 
Mr.  Seymour  are  not  such  fools  as  to  mis- 
understand this; 'but  they  know  that  the 
effect  of  the  emission  of  such  an  amount  of 
currency  would  be  to  render  it  worthless 
as  French  assignats  or  Continental  money, 
and  thus  wipe  out  the  debt.  Two  thou- 
sand millions  added  to  our  volume  of  cur- 
rency, and  you  would  require  a  market- 
basket  in  winch  to  carry  your  money  to 
market,  but  vour  marketing  could  be  car- 
ried in  a  butter-kettle.  Add  $2,000,000,000 
to  the  paper  currency  of  the  country,  in  ex- 
change for  the  bonds,  and  every  savings' 


bank  in  the  country  would  be  bank- 
rupt, no  insurance  company  in  the  country 
could  pay  its  policies,  the  industry  of  the 
country  would  be  paralyzed,  labor  would 
have  no  employment  or  reward,  and  prop- 
erty no  security!  "The  bloated  bond- 
holder," says  Mr.  Pendleton.  Who  are 
the  "bloated  bondholders?"  I  find  that 
the  bonds  were  issued  in  small  amounts  to 
millions  of  people.  While  there  Were 
issued  1,474,940  of  the  amount  of  $10Q, 
there  were  but  8,821  of  the  value  of  $5,000. 
Let  me  invite  your  attention  to  an  official 
statement  of  the  number  of  each  denomina- 
tion : 


Number,  of  bonds  of  $50   902.580 

Number  of  bonds  of  $100   1,474,940 

Number  of  bonds  of  $ o00   436, 792 

Number  of  bonds  of  $1,000    370,376 

Number  of  bonds  of  $5,000   8,821 


The  masses  of  the  people  hold  these 
bonds.  Many  of  you  are  bondholders.  The 
estates  of  widows  and  orphans,  whether  of 
soldiers  or  of  citizens,  are  invested  in  these 
bonds,  and  their  future  depends  upon  their 
honest  redemption.  Every  one  of  you 
who  has  a  deposit  in  a  savings'  bank,  who 
owns  a  share  in  a  bank  or  in  an  insurance 
company,  or  whose  life  or  place  of  busi- 
ness or  little  home  is  insured  by  any  of  the 
insurance  companies  of  this  or  neighbor- 
ing cities,  has  an  interest  in  the  faithful 
payment  of  the  bonds  of  the  Government, 
of  which  they  are  heavy  holders.  The 
blows  of  Mr.  Pendleton  and  Mr.  Seymour 
are  aimed  at  you,  and  it  is  you  they 
denounce  as  "  bloated  bondholders." 

Without  detaining  you  longer,  let  me  say, 
my  friends,  that  you  have  fought  for  the 
honor  of  your  country,  you  have  labored 
for  it,  or  you  have  perilled  whatever  of 
fortune  you  had  in  its  cause.  Its  honor  is 
your  honor  ;  the  lustre  of  its  proud  name 
is  your  glory.  And  could  I  hold  out  to 
you  no  selfish  inducements,  such  as  those 
I  have  presented,  the  honor  and  glory  of 
your  country  would  be  sufficient  to  induce 
you  to  stand  by  the  Republican  cause,  and 
say  to  those  who,  within  three  years,  have 
repealed  taxes  to  an  amount  that,  if  unre- 
pealed, would  yield  the  Government  two 
hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  dollars  per 
annum,  and  who,  while  doing  this,  have 
squared  accounts  with  and  paid  the  back 
pay,  bounties,  and  pensions  of  the  soldiers 
and  sailors  of  the  country,  and  extinguished 
more  than  $250,000,000  of  the  principal  of 
the  bonded  debt  of  the  country,  go  on, 
good  and  faithful ;  guide  us  into  history, 
and  by  the  continued  splendor  of  your 
course  add  to  the  obloquy  that  covers  the 
Seymours,  the  Lees,  the  Pendletons,  the 
Jeff.  Davises,  and  other  rebels  of  the  coun- 
try, North  and  South  !  [Long-continued 
cheers.] 


King  &  Baird,  Printers,  607  Sanson*  Street,  Philadelphia* 


